Friday, March 29, 2013

The Host (2013): Review

Tonight for Friday Movie Night I went and saw The Host. The movie adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's book, which was her follow up to The Twilight Saga.  Although this movie is about Aliens and not Vampires/Werewolf's it falls into the same teen paranormal fiction as the Twilight Sage.  There were some things that I liked in this movie and some that were annoying but overall it was what I was expecting for what it is.  I would only recommend this movie for people who like these types of storylines and movies as it will have little to drawn in those who do not like the melodrama which calls to my internal sixteen year old girl.  For those who like Twilight, Beautiful Creatures, etc. this is a movie for you.
The Host is set in a future time where earth has been colonised by an unnamed alien race who occupies the bodies of the species, in this case humans.  There are pockets of humans who have not been possessed by these alien souls who are fighting to remain in control of themselves and their lives.  Melanie, played by Saoirse Ronan, is a member of the resistance who attempts to sacrifice herself to save her little brother, Jamie and boyfriend Jared.  After being captured and healed by the aliens, she becomes the host of Wanda (Wanderer).  Wanda connects with Melanie, who resists her implantation and the two of them journey to learn about each other and save the people that Melanie cares about, all while being pursued by A Seeker, played by Diane Kruger, who is intent on possessing all the remaining resistance.
It took a while for me to get into this movie, as it really throws you into what is happening without giving you a chance to have any emotional connection to the main character of Melanie.  I actually felt more for Wanda then Melanie.  This movie, does what a lot of other movies right now do and I am starting to get tired of, this is the explanation monologue over the opening sequence to explain what is going on.  I would connect to the story faster is there was a way to explain this without a talk over.  About a third of the way into the movie, once all of the extended set up was through, I was able to settle into and enjoy the movie for what it was.  I also struggled with how the voice of Melanie inside of Wanda was portrayed.  Ronan has difficulty sticking to a specific accent, sometimes it was southern while at others it had more of the Wanda lilt.  It was also very disruptive to what was going on.  I think this was done because it was suppose to represent the strength of Melanie within Wanda's head but because the focus wasn't so much inside of Wanda's head by following her story from above her it didn't really jell for me.  I wanted to feel more inside of Wanda's head and struggle with Melanie during this internal discussion moments.
Besides the things mentioned above, I liked this movie, but as indicated it is what it is.  This is not an award winner but it satisfied my internal teenage girl and once it got into the meat of the story I liked it but didn't love it. 
I didn't read the book, so I cannot say how true to form of the book, but there were some standard Stephanie Meyer stuff, such as the love triangle (rectangle if you split up Melanie and Wanda) and the focus on the melodrama of intense emotional responses from many characters.

My Rating: 2

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