The Host

   

             Earth has been invaded by a symbiotic race of aliens that inhabit human bodies.  Nearly every single human on the planet has become a host to one of these “Souls.”  There are only a precious few uninhabited humans left and they must fight to maintain their freedom.  This movie begins in the middle of the action as Melanie (Saoirse Ronan) tries to avoid capture by jumping  through a window intending to die rather than be captured.  Her body survives, however, and the Soul that inhabits her body is called Wanderer.  Wanderer begins to search Melanie’s memories in order to locate the human resistance.  Instead, Melanie and her memories cause Wanderer to question everything she has ever known to be true. 

                This movie is based on the book of the same name written by Stephanie Meyer, the author of the Twilight Saga.   *Sigh*   Alas, the writing in this story is no better than that in her previous endeavors.  The characters the audience is presented with are flat and we are given no time to get to know them at all before we are expected to sympathize with their actions.  The dialog exacerbates this problem and I am completely drawn out of the experience to wonder who wrote this and had had they ever heard a real conversation between two people? 

                I didn’t think it was possible, but the love story is even less relatable in this story than in Twilight.  The audience knows nothing about the characters or their relationship before they are expected to accept that these two characters are so firmly in love that they would die, or kill for each other.  One of my biggest pet peeves about love stories by the way.   The audience should fall in love with him as much as she does and vice versa.   The beginning of this movie moves too fast to allow this to happen and the end drags so much that you no longer care what happens to them. 

                The real tragedy here is that the movie was not poorly made and quite well performed all around. A lot of money was spent on this film and the production value and aesthetic are impressive.  If the script had been better, I would have quite liked this movie.  I am a huge fan of Saoirse Ronan.  You might remember her from Lovely Bones, Hanna, or her Oscar nominated performance in Atonement.  The main love interest is played by Max Irons whose parents are both actors; his father is Jeremy Irons who boasts an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony as well as being one of my top ten favorite actors.  Melanie’s uncle is played by William Hurt whose prestigious career includes three Oscar nominated performances and one Oscar winning performance.  My point?  Huge.  Waste.

                I won’t say it has no redeeming qualities, but I will say that I wish I had my $9.50 and 125 minutes back.  I know there are a lot of die-hard Stephanie Meyer fans out there and if you are one of them, by all means go see it and enjoy!   Otherwise you might want to pick a different movie this time.

New movie in the theater for this weekend:

Evil Dead:  A revival of Sam Raimi’s cult classics of the same name.

Jurassic Park: 3D  :  A re-release of the Spielberg smash hit with a few embellishments.  AKA- an excuse to charge you $13 for a movie you have already seen a hundred times.