Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) is one of the last surviving humans that haven’t been taken over by the parasitic beings known as Souls who have taken over human bodies and use them as hosts.  The Souls have perfected human society and got rid of war as they have healed the Earth.  Melanie is running from a group of Seekers when she crashes through a window in a hotel to what would have been her death, but they save her and implant her with an old Soul known as Wanderer.  A Seeker (Diane Kruger) is questioning Wanderer on her memories of Melanie, but Melanie still exists in her body and is fighting against Wanderer’s attempts to reveal where her kid brother Jamie and Jared- the man she loves went to.  Soon Wanderer finds herself at odds with Melanie and they escape with Melanie directing Wanderer to where Jared and Jamie are at.  The Seeker is focused on finding where the last pocket of resistance is hiding. 

 

THE HOST starts out with a great premise and yet sputters out into a meta-philosophical story/ slow romance story.  This film isn’t the best work of writer/ director Andrew Niccol.  He has taken the novel by Stephanie Meyer and turned it into a Cliff Notes version of the novel without even trying to make the movie better than the novel I had a hard time trying to read through.  It is a faithful adaptation, but I do think Andrew should have sometimes used the book as inspiration and strengthened the areas where the novel was weak.  THE HOST ends up being a halfway interesting emotional sci-fi story which will becomes a little bit better with a second viewing.   I enjoyed it, but I found the story to be bogged down by the emotional storytelling and not try to find a way to create real conflict.  Why should we care for the humans who have destroyed the world vs. the Souls who have healed the Earth?  I wanted more of the conflict between Souls and humans where THE HOST focuses on the story of Melanie/ Wanderer too much without giving it real meaty conflict.  This is one of the movies you want to wait to rent instead spending hard earned cash on buying the DVD/ Blu-ray.  If you want the best of Andrew Niccol, I suggest that you go watch GATTACA or THE TRUMAN SHOW.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary with author/ producer Stephanie Meyer/ Writer/ Director Andrew Niccol, and Producer Nick Wechsler.  Andrew Niccol points out the changes he made for the story in the movie from the book as the author of the book makes some comments on the book and the movie.

 

Four deleted scenes cut for pacing reasons are included, but I wish they left the first two in the movie.

 

BRINGING THE HOST TO LIFE- interviews with Stephanie Meyer, the cats, and the director talk about THE HOST and the making of the film with some behind-th-scenes footage in this eight minute featurette.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  THE HOST is an emotional sci-fi romance which may bore some fans who are expecting more drama and action instead of a slow burn romance.

 

This movie review is (c)3-30-2013 and Blu-ray/ DVD review is (c)7-10-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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