Hey everyone welcome to a new year and a new review. The Host is an adaption of a novel written by the same author that brought us Sparkly Vampires. In Stephenie Meyer’s own words The Host is “science fiction for people who hate science fiction. Sniff sniff sniff sniff….sniff sniff…..sniff sniff sniff. You smell that? That’s the foul stench of bullshit coming from this woman. You’re probably wondering why am I reviewing The Host first and not Twilight? Well as much I want to review Twilight it’s been reviewed to death by many many reviewers so I really don’t see a reason for me to review the series. What can I possibly say about the series that’s already been said by the reviewers before me? So instead I might as well review this film while it’s still recent and still has that “rip this film a new asshole” smell. Although I will do something different with Twilight; instead of a review I may do an analysis. A deconstruction of what is just systematically wrong with the series and actually point out a few positives that would’ve helped the series not to be so terrible. But this deconstruction is somewhere down the road so be on the lookout for it in the future.
We open on a narration that Earth is at peace; no more hunger, no more violence, and the environment has healed itself. But the narration continues that Earth is no longer our own that we’ve been invaded by an alien race Souls. Occupying the bodies of almost every human on the planet and the remaining humans are on the run. OK I gotta stop there for a moment just how exactly did the aliens invade us? The film never SHOW us how it all went down we’re just taking the film’s word for it. And keep this in mind the aliens in question are these tiny centipede-like creatures of light and don’t have any physical bodies before they came to Earth. So how did they manage to takeover humanity so sufficiently with no difficulty and on a worldwide scale? If I have to answer I would say humanity was made of stupid on that day. As the narration ends we cut to Melanie Stryder (played by Saoirse Ronan) being cornered by the occupied host Souls. She knocks a few of them and runs away; she heads upstairs as the OHSs give chase. She runs into a room and jumps through a window falling to her “death”. Her body is taken to a facility where later one of them OHS healers discovered that Melanie is still alive and has suffered no internal injuries. OK she fell at a pretty high up from a window and somehow she’s still alive with no injuries. Well at that height it’s possible you can survive through it but to fall from high up and live with NO INJURIES that’s a whole other can of bullshit. And when the film doesn’t know how Melanie is magically still alive you’re putting your own foot so far in your mouth that you’re shitting out your toenails. Anyway the OHSs healers prep Melanie for Soul implantation. One of the healers cuts a small slit at the back of Melanie’s neck then the healer opens a small capsule containing a Soul. The Soul then enters Melanie’s neck as she awakes but not as Melanie any more. The Soul now calling “herself” Wanderer has full control of the host body…..or so she thought. Later her in room Wanderer is taken comfort with her new body until suddenly she hears Melanie in her head apparently Melanie’s conscious is still alive.
Now I’m going ahead and bitch about this so that we I come to it later I won’t linger on it too much. Remember that show Jekyll where the character Tom Jackman is the descendent of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde therefore he has the Hyde personality as well. Anyway as the series progresses we see Tom struggling against Hyde. And I mean we really see Tom struggling against Hyde. The interaction between Tom and Hyde was done by visually means despite being the same person; making the dynamics between the two more believable and well done. Where as in this film with Melanie and Wanderer they act like five year olds in a pissing contest for the last piece of cake. Only to have the parents take away that said cake just to get them to shut up. That’s the basic dynamic between these two and it’s really pathetic. Not to mention how Melanie interacts via voiceovers can get annoying almost immediately. Wanderer is approached by The Seeker (played by Diane Kruger) who wants to find the human resistance which Melanie is a part of that resistance. Resistance, rebels you keep using those words I do not think they mean of what this film thinks they mean. I’ll explain what I mean later. Accessing Melanie’s memories Wanderer tells The Seeker about Melanie; how she, her brother Jamie (played by Chandler Canterbury) and their father escaped the initial colonization. Her family was hiding at a house near a pier where her father was found by other Seekers but he put a bullet in his head before being captured. Melanie and Jamie were hiding under the pier when it happened. Melanie tries to stop Wanderer from saying Jamie’s name to the Seeker but still does so. Cut to nighttime as Wanderer is asleep and apparently seeing into Melanie’s memories which triggers a flashback. Melanie is in a house stealing food from the refrigerator until she’s snuck up from behind by a human Jared Howe (played by Max Irons). Surprised to find another human Jared kisses her…..yeah you can already guess where this is going. Melanie breaks free runs off but Jared catches up to her and tackles her down. The flashback ends with Jared convinces Melanie that he’s human and offers her a ride back to Jamie. The next day Wanderer shows the Seeker a picture of Jared she drew after the dream she had. As she access Melanie’s memory again this triggers another flashback. Melanie and Jamie are staying with Jared as they’re staying at an abandon house where they not much hiding but rather frolicking around. You know in most alien invasion films humans usually hide away until things blow over or until the good guys win whichever comes first. But these guys don’t seem to be worry about things like the aliens having surveillance drones, spy satellites or tracking systems. Nope just hang around outside with no worries at all. Thankful for them and the other humans the aliens are just as equally stupid; more on that later. Continuing the flashback miles away from their home Jared spots a few Seekers who are scouting the place. Leaving them no choice but to pack up and head to their uncle Jeb; Melanie and the others hide at an old hotel for the night. Jared goes off to get supply while Melanie and Jamie stay behind. Moments later Seekers show up searching for the two; Melanie tells Jamie to stay hidden as she lures them away. This leads up to the scene from the beginning where she runs from Seekers and jumps to her death and flashback ends.
The Seeker asked for more info but Wanderer comes up with nothing and the Seeker leaves. Wanderer gets an image of a mountain range and starts drawing it down. Melanie pleads for her to get rid of the drawing and without any hesitation Wanderer complies. Cut to Wanderer standing near a lake until she’s approached by the Seeker again; she continues asking Wanderer where the resistance are but Melanie tells her to say nothing and she complies. Wanderer is really compliant isn’t she? Not even once trying to give any protest on Melanie just does as she says almost immediately. As if this character has no ounce of thought or will of her own; almost reminds me of someone. The Seeker informs her on a possible sighting of Jared and is in the process of locating him. This gets Melanie upset that has her temporarily regain control of her body and tries to strangle Seeker. Seeker quickly counters and incapacitates her. Later after Wanderer recovers Seeker is convinced that the host is too resistant and Wanderer will be implanted into more compatible one. As for Melanie, Seeker will inhibit her body, access her memories and locate the resistance. Melanie doesn’t want that to happen and convinces Wanderer to escape the facility. After Wanderer is locked in her room, Melanie instructs her to prop a chair under the doorknob and to go out the window. Wanderer refuses to jump off the balcony and into a fountain below but Melanie temporarily takes control again and jumps off the balcony. You’re probably asking does these temporary regains of Melanie lead up to anything. Short answer no, long answer will be given later. Wanderer swims out of the fountain and escapes the facility; she persuades an OHS to lend her his car and drives away. On the road Wanderer wants to head to Fort Worth to find a Healer to help them. However, being distracted by Melanie’s memory of her and Jared has them driving the opposite direction. Wanderer turns the car around but Melanie causes her to roll the car over and crash off road. Wanderer gets out of the car with no choice but to listen to Melanie and starts walking to wherever Jamie and Jared are. Back at the facility Seeker finds the torn up mountain drawing and uses (what I can identify) Google Maps Advance and locates the mountain range. And hell if I know where this mountain area is. Seriously this is one of many film’s problem it doesn’t give out any specific geographic location of where everything is. In one scene there’s the OHS facility, in another scene there’s this swamp area, in another scene there’s house in the middle of some field. Just where the hell is everything? The film pads out with Wanderer/Melanie walking in some desert looking Jeb’s cabin. So Melanie’s plan was to find this cabin in the middle of god knows where this desert is. And who the hell lives in a cabin in a desert you’re putting yourself in deep shit if anything goes wrong. Exhausted from walking in a desert Wanderer/Melanie passed out under a tree until later they are found by Jeb (played by William Hurt) and his group. Jeb is overjoyed of finding Melanie but soon to be shocked to see her as an OHS. One of the group members Kyle (played by Boyd Holbrook) is about to kill Wanderer but Jeb stops him at gunpoint. The rest of the group including Melanie’s aunt Maggie (played by Frances Fisher) are not at all pleased of Jeb sparring Wanderer. I just don’t get this film’s logic; Jeb’s group has a good reason to kill Wanderer. I mean what’s to stop her from giving away their location to other OHSs? How does Jeb know she won’t give him false info that would get them captured? I understand she his flesh and blood but most films that I’m familiar when a relative or love one turns into a vampire, zombies or possessed by some evil entity. You’re left with no choice but to put that relative or love one to rest because otherwise you’re screwing yourself and everyone else over. And not to mention the group should have kill Jeb just by his sheer stupidity that’s literally putting them in danger. This is just heavy handed tripe of telling us that she’s the main character and she has to live. Also this is just a lazy way to avoid any conflict build up or following up on that conflict.
Jeb has her blindfolded the group takes her to some type of cave inside a mountain. Wanderer sees Jared and Melanie calls out to him but aside from the audience only Wanderer can hear her. Wanderer walks towards Jared but he slaps causes her to fall down and hits her head on rock. Later she’s recovers in a holding area as Jared is on guard. Kyle and two other men show up promptly to kill Wanderer but Jared refuses to let them do so. A fight breaks out between Jared and Kyle; he calls for Ian (played by Jake Abel) to go kill Wanderer. Ian starts strangling her but Jeb fires his shotgun ending the fight. Jeb sets the record straight that Wanderer is off limits and that no one shouldn’t kill each other. Kyle and the two men disagree with this but they walked away. OK if a bunch of assholes are more rational and concern than the guy in charged you know you’re doing something wrong. And again his own stupidity is putting everyone in danger; sure we the audience know that Wanderer is actually no threat to no one. But it’s not like these people know that so in their defense it doesn’t hurt to be a little cautious. A little bit later Wanderer sees Jamie watching her; the two are talking as Jeb whose on guard listens in. Jamie wants to know what became of Melanie; she response that took her life in order to protect him and Jared. They continue talking until Jared walks in telling Jamie to stay away from “it”. Jeb goes off to watch over Jamie as Jared and Ian stand guard. Ian displays this abrupt keel turn (giving that earlier he was suspicious of Wanderer) is convinced that she’s not a threat while Jared remains cautious. Oh don’t worry more characters will display randomly abrupt keel turns later on. Jared, Kyle and a few of the humans go off in trucks to look for supplies. Meanwhile Jeb gives Wanderer a tour of the cave here’s where the film’s logic falls on its ass again. Jeb deduced that Wanderer wasn’t sent by the Seekers to find this place but instead escaped from the Seekers. Then he deduces that Melanie is still alive somewhere within Wanderer which is he believes that she cares for Jared and Jamie. Sherlock Holmes would call bullshit on this guy’s ability of deduction. While he is correct that Wanderer wasn’t sent by the Seeker but figuring out that Melanie is still alive….again Sherlock Holmes bullshit. Jeb calls for Jamie to watch over Wanderer; Jamie takes her to look at some glowworms and ask her if Melanie is still alive. Wanderer answers and Jamie is now relieved. Cut to a store (which literally says store on the front) where Jared and the others are stealing supplies to bring back to the cave. They load up and about to head out but are approached by an OHS. Jared Knocks him out, ties him up and puts him in the truck. Back at the cave Jeb has Wanderer working in a wheat field with the other humans; most of them are unease by her presence except for Ian. The two are looking at each other which make Melanie disgusted by this. Ian even offers water to Wanderer and she accepts which makes Melanie even more disgusted. She even goes out of her way of reminding Wanderer that he tried to kill her. Wow brownie points for pointing out Ian’s out of nowhere keel turn film.
Anyway cut to some Seekers that have been searching for Wanderer in the hope to find the human resistance. A Seeker helicopter spots one of the trucks and gives chase while other seekers converged in their silver cars. So these aliens who have achieved interstellar space travel, have advanced technology and have achieved a complete earth renewal. Yet when finding unoccupied humans their best way to do so is just go wondering around in silver choppers, cars and motorcycles and just hope for the best to find some humans just out and about for some reason. Not saying this film is dumber than Twilight but it’s REALLY getting there. The Seekers are chasing down the trunk while in the second truck Jared and Kyle are keeping their distance so they won’t get noticed. The first truck gets cornered so the human drivers decided to kill themselves by crashing into a concrete barrier to avoid being occupied. Jared and Kyle drive away but are spotted by (Kruger) Seeker. Soon after Jared and Kyle are being pursued by a Seeker Jared slams on the brakes causing the Seeker to crash at the back end of the truck. Jared goes off to put the Seeker in truck but (Kruger) Seeker shows up. She picks up a gun that Kyle dropped during the crash while Jared quickly gets back into the truck. She open fires but accidently shoots the Seeker dead as Jared and Kyle make their escape. Back at the cave Wanderer is having a conversion with some of the other humans until Jared arrives. He takes Jeb’s gun and is about to shoot her Jamie stops him telling him that if he kills Wanderer he’ll also kill Melanie. Jared does not believe this but he gives the gun back to Jeb and leaves. Wanderer wants to go back to her cell but Ian offers her to stay at his room. She accepts but she’s rather confused (and she’s not the only one who’s confused) by Ian’s sudden kindness towards her. Whatever Ian’s reason for being so friendly to Wanderer out of nowhere I can assume that it’s the film’s poor writing. Later Jared arrives to Ian’s place wanting to talk to Wanderer; not all too sure if Melanie is still alive Jared proceeds to kiss Wanderer. Melanie is in shock of what Jared is doing and demands Wanderer to stop. She continues pleading until once again regaining control long enough to punch Jared. This somehow convinces him that Melanie is still alive and still loves her as Wanderer leaves the room. Later Wanderer is by herself when Kyle is calling out to her; apparently Melanie has a spider sense and tells her to hide. Kyle doesn’t see her and moves on; Wanderer makes a run for it but is caught by Kyle. He tries to throw her in a nearby whirlpool but she tries to fight back. During the struggle Kyle hits his head on a wall and is about to fall in but Wanderer grabs him trying to pull him back up. I would bitch about it or ask why Wanderer is saving him but Melanie is doing the job for me. And when a film points the flaws it has the filmmaker REALLY needs to step back and think. That is assuming that the filmmaker in question did any actual thinking when making this film. Ian comes soon after she called for help; they managed to pull him out of the whirlpool. Afterwards Wanderer is being asked by Jeb of what happened but she lied, saying that Kyle slipped. However, Ian figures it out that Kyle tried to kill her; Jeb threatens Kyle to stay away from Wanderer.
A little bit later after Jared goes for supplies with Kyle, Ian approaches Wanderer asking her to come walk with him. I know I’m not gonna get a straight sane answer but it’s worth asking anyway. What possibly could Wanderer have done that has Ian going all lovey-dovey on her? Seriously what had she done? Not going into detail just yet she has literally done nothing as a character to prove her worth to anyone. Let alone to have some random human falling in love with her out of nowhere. Cut to Ian and Wanderer sitting outside the two start sharing feeling for each other while Melanie is being against this matter. The two began kissing but Melanie threatens Wanderer that she’ll hurt Ian and so she stops. You might be saying that Melanie is being a bitch and you are right but in her defense it’s still her body. Granted she’s not in control at the moment but consciously she’s still alive and aware of what’s going on. Back in the cave Wanderer goes to Jamie asking where everyone is. Jamie response that he doesn’t know but Melanie senses that he’s lying. Wanderer walks off only to wait for Jamie to go off to his room. She goes to see the Doc (played by Scott Lawrence) in the infirmary but is completely shocked to see dead Souls after being taken out of the humans who now lay dead. Wanderer runs off in anger and spends the next few days in her cell. She’s approached by Jeb trying to justify what they were doing was survival though he still feels sorry for what they’ve done. He then tells her that Jamie is severely hurt. Earlier during a harvest Jamie was distracted by a passing Seeker helicopter and ended up cutting himself in the leg. Now the cut has gotten infected and due to the Souls destroying all human medicines it can’t be treated and Jamie may die. Wanderer suggests to Ian that they should go to a Soul facility and get the medicine Jamie needs. At the Soul facility Wanderer cuts herself to be treated so she can steal some meds. This plan works and Wanderer leaves with the meds along with a Soul capsule. They hurried back to the cave in time to heal Jamie. Cut to (Kruger) Seeker still searching for the cave. You know those surveillance drones, spy satellites and tracking systems I’ve mentioned would make a far better idea instead of aimlessly driving around in a desert. Cut to the Store where Wanderer is getting supplies this time not relying on stealing. Making it easy for her to literally walk out of the Store with no problems; then she, Ian and Jared load up the supplies and head back to the cave. Upon making their return they find a dead body of a human who was scouting the area. The three of them are ambushed by the armed (Kruger) Seeker but gets shot by Jeb. Later they have her healed and put in a cell where Wanderer wishes to talk to her alone. (Kruger) Seeker is confident that other Seekers will her and the cave but Wanderer has other plans to keep the cave safe. Wanderer approaches Doc telling him there’s a proper way to remove the Souls without killing the hosts. In exchange with this information Doc has to promise that no Soul won’t come to harm and that he removes Wanderer out of Melanie. Doc agrees. A little bit later they have (Kruger) Seeker ready for Soul extraction. After Doc slits an open at the back of her neck Wanderer demonstrates to not forceful remove the Soul but to let it remove itself. Now I would say that’s clever but I’m my mind is too busy screaming bullshit right now.
I mean none of the humans couldn’t figure it out; it’s really that simply and no one figures it out. And I wouldn’t put it as a “secret” as Wanderer puts it more like trial and error and common sense. Anyway Wanderer takes the Soul and placed it in the capsule when later it’s taken to Soul facility and sent off into space. With the Seeker Soul now gone the host (named Lacey) is free and in control. Wanderer gathers Jeb, Jared, Ian, and Doc telling them that she wishes to be removed of a Melanie and go back into space. Now of course everyone is at a disagreement with her choice including Melanie. As much as I wanna bitch about everyone’s out of place concerns for Wanderer but I’m saving my bitchy mode for the main event. Later Wanderer is ready to be extracted and sent back into space but Melanie knows the truth Wanderer wants to die rather than taking over another life. Despite her disgust towards Wanderer she finally accepts her and doesn’t want her to die. This makes Wanderer very happy and accepts her fate with no regrets. Now with all bullshit aside despite their differences (or the lack there of) this is an honest to god moving scene. HOWEVER, the following scene decides to ruin all of that with a giant throbbing middle finger to the brain. Cut to a POV of Wanderer waking up in a new body (played by Emily Browning) despite her protest of taking another life. However, while she was out for month Jeb and the others have been removing Souls from the hosts successfully. But the host in question started dying after the Soul removal so they decided to place her in that body to give it life. Bitchy Mode ACTIVATE! Now this was a very nice gesture for them to do this BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT in doing so the previous scenes where Melanie and Wanderer set aside their differences and had a rather lovely closure to Wanderer’s character. WAS EASILY REDUCED TO NOTHING MORE BUT POINTLESS FALSE TENSION! AND NOW THIS FILM IS DUMBER THAN TWILIGHT! This film basically uses the same cop out bullshit from Breaking Dawn part Two. I can understand to some extent why Wanderer is so important to these people. But why ruin such a mood scene for the sake of keeping her around with a completely out of nowhere alternative? I call bullshit that they coincidently found the ONE host that was dying and decided to just slap her in to it without a single consent from Wanderer. I guess they really wanted to justify this action without feeling guilty with the possibility that they may have taken someone’s live. And of course this pleases Ian very much because heaven forbid if he doesn’t have a piece of alien ass to bring home…….fucker. Cut to months later in wherever the fuck they are as Melanie, Jared, Wanderer and Ian are just driving around until they are stopped by Seekers. They get out of the car to be inspected by one Seeker and to his surprise find one them to be a Soul. Soon after it’s revealed that the rest of the Seeker aren’t really Seekers but human survivors and the Seeker in question is on their side. I should go back to my Bitchy Mode but this film is already fucking over so I get to it in my final verdict.
My Final Verdict: Instead of the usual straight forward thoughts on this film I’ll be giving out three detailed points of how it has actual potential but embarrassingly falls on its ass.
1.Characters: While Twilight would constantly bullshits the audience to believing that Bella Swan is so strong, caring and selfless but in reality her actions completely contradicts her in every way. Melanie Stryder actually displays these traits without being such a ham handed character; when she’s first introduced she’s not some depressed antisocial with no aim or goal in her life. She actually has concerns for the people in her life. So much so that she’s willing to kill herself in order to protect her family. Where’s this level of concern and brass balls when it comes to Bella? Short answer nowhere. Now unfortunately upon having her body taken over by Wanderer, Melanie was reduced to an annoying voiceover. Do I have to mention Jekyll again? I’ve seen practical dual roles done basically but are well done whereas here the dual role is so basic it’s downright lazy. And this is not even the fault of the actress Saoirse Ronan. I’m sure she’s a great actress but it feels like they weren’t even trying to create the mental illusion of two conflicting characters in one body. Not to mention Saoirse is given two characters with the most weakest of dynamics. Nothing against Wanderer but she’s by far the blankest slated character that Stephenie Meyer has ever created. I mean she’s virtually unnoticeable as a main character she’s freaking invisible. At no point in the film does she show any kind of growth that didn’t felt forced on to the audience. It’s nice for her to show concerns and sympathy for the humans but it keeps leading up to the question why? Why up to this point does she care for the humans after taken over dozens of other alien races? The only reason why she feels so sorry for the humans is because Melanie completely guilt riddens her with her memories. Not once does Wanderer display or prove any self-development just bluntly has other characters do the development for her. She literally has no character motivation and even if she has they’re completely shallow. The Ian character was just a waste of space through the whole film. At no point do we know anything about this guy; at least with Jared we know a little about but it’s enough to understand his hatred and distrust towards Wanderer. But with Ian he’s just some guy with a random hard on for Wanderer his only character motivation are as follows. “Oh wow a sexy alien; I wanna go fuck it for no reason at all.” Captain Jack Harkness has better sex motivations than this ET raping twerp.
2.The World of The Host: The film sets up as this post-invasion story that I was honestly invested for the most part. Such as how the aliens have made a stable society instead of the usual film cliché of aliens taking over the world. This would have driven the story much better if it was focus on the conflict of the humans being replaced by the Souls that were going on in the film. But I feel that they explored this conflict halfway. (Kruger) Seeker keeps talking about resistance and rebellions from the humans but through the whole film I didn’t see no such thing. Sure a few humans had guns but they’re not exactly at the WOLVERINES level of resistance they were just a bunch people trying to live on. At one point in the film there’s a confusing assumption of who’s in the right and who’s in wrong. You have the humans stating that the Souls are evil while they do evil things just as equally. Another plot-point that isn’t fully explored is when it’s established that the occupied host can somehow resist the Soul. The film never explains why this is possible and also raises the question. If this is recurring problem why the Souls aren’t doing anything to fix it? Why not erase the human consciousness out of the bodies? Not only that the film never explores the possible tension of Melanie eventually overpowers Wanderer and regain control completely. And lastly how a few Souls can turn to the side of the humans on whim felt completely shallow. This could’ve easily been one of the focal points of the film if it wasn’t swept under the rug for the sake of an obvious copy-and-pasted SMeyer love story that doesn’t even try to carry the entirety of the story.
3.Overall: This film had a good story concept-wise but in its overall execution The Host is unbalanced. As I stated before most of the plot-points are thrown under the rug for the sake of SMeyer’s cookie cutter ham fisted love story. Rendering most of these plot-points completely unfocused upon. The characters range from decent to sexually driven moron(s) and the overall growth of the story feels deeply underplay.
I got a feeling I have more to say but I’m completely spent I just wanna be done with this film. The film obviously leaves itself open for a sequel but given that it’s not on the same level of success as Twilight. Chances of a sequel are not too promising and let’s pray to god that it stays that way. However, if any slim chance of a sequel I’ll be there to smite the abomination with an all righteous fury…..and Red Lantern Rage. I think I need to look into some REAL sci-fi films just to get the taste of this film out of my brain. So stay tuned next time as we look into one of my personal favorites Runaway.
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