Three out of
Five stars
Running time:
125 mins
Astutely directed and heightened by a terrific central
performance by Saoirse Ronan, The Host scrapes a pass as a
decent Sci-Fi movie with some nice ideas, but it's
frequently pulled down by the angsty teen love triangle
trappings of Stephenie Meyer's source novel.
What's it all about?
Written and directed by Andrew Niccol, The Host is based
on the novel by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer and takes
place in a future where the Earth has been almost entirely
conquered by a parasitic, body-snatching alien race known
as the Souls, who've turned the planet's population into
peaceful, perpetually polite pod people.
Saoirse Ronan stars as Melanie Stryder, one of the
planet's few surviving resistance members, who gets
captured and possessed by an alien known as Wanderer
(later ‘Wanda’), but whose consciousness survives in the
newly possessed body and continues her resistance via
bolshy voiceover and the occasional physical
override.
With Melanie fighting Wanda for control from within and
Wanda, in turn, reliving and being affected by Melanie's
memories, they escape and find refuge in the resistance's
desert hideaway run by Melanie's uncle Jeb (William Hurt).
Once there, emotional complications come to the fore, with
Melanie remaining attached to her suspicious former
boyfriend Jared (Max Irons) and Wanda falling for
fair-haired freedom fighter Ian (Jake Abel). Meanwhile, a
tenacious Seeker (Diane Kruger) is determined to recapture
Melanie/Wanda and heads out into the desert.
The Good
Andrew Niccol's solid Sci-Fi credentials include Gattaca
and The Truman Show and his influence is keenly felt here,
creating an impressive visual aesthetic for the newly
conquered Earth that's layered with nicely-observed
details, such as all branding being eliminated or the fact
that Wanda is able to steal a car just by politely asking
for one. Similarly, the plot delivers an intriguing twist
on a familiar genre idea and gets decent mileage out of
the allusion to similar Sci-Fi sources (e.g. Invasion of
the Body Snatchers), while also, amusingly, managing to
steal from body-swap comedy classic All Of Me.
The film's saving grace is a terrific performance from
Saoirse Ronan, who's utterly compelling and genuinely
moving as Wanda, an angsty alien learning what it means to
be human. There's also strong support from both William
Hurt and Diane Kruger (an emotionless alien – the role she
was born to play), though Irons and Abel are both pure
cardboard in the conflicting love interest roles,
rendering the parts practically indistinguishable.
The Bad
The film's biggest problem is the constant influx of
tedious/unintentionally hilarious dialogue surrounding the
love triangle stuff, as well as some uncomfortably dodgy
moments such as Jared's unsubtle seduction technique or a
scene where Wanda has to cut herself to enter a
hospital.
Worth seeing?
The clash between author and director is so pronounced
that The Host often feels like a petulant tug-of-war
between a decent Sci-Fi movie and a laughably trashy teen
romance. Fortunately, the Sci-Fi flick wins, but only
just.