Film Review: The Host
The Host is based on Stephenie Meyer’s book of the same name; Meyer being best known as the creator and writer behind Twilight. But unlike the pasty bloodsuckers from Meyer’s other franchise, this time it’s aliens who are causing trouble. In fact, these aliens have already conquered the Earth (they survive by implanting themselves into other bodies and then taking over an entire species/society).
Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), one of the last remaining ‘free’ humans is captured by the Seeker (Diane Kruger) and is taken over by an alien called Wanderer. The Seeker asks Wanderer to access Melanie’s memories, in order to help them find the last pockets of non-assimilated humans. But things don’t go to plan when Melanie’s consciousness begins to struggle for control of her body.
Director Andrew Niccol certainly has a decent sci-fi pedigree, having directed 1997’s Gattaca. But it would be remiss to label The Host as exclusively sci-fi. In fact, if The Host is stripped down to its core, it’s essentially a female fantasy exploring how a girl can legitimately have two boyfriends (see Twilight).
This becomes clear in the film’s 2nd act, when Melanie/Wanderer is reunited with her former lover Jared (Max Irons). Meanwhile Wanderer (now charmingly nicknamed ‘Wanda’) begins to fall for another young, male member of the resistance – Ian (Jake Abel). This creates a bizarre love triangle, where two men are in love with a pair of women who happen to share the same body. Perhaps this idea could have been explored in an interesting way, but instead it plays more like a twisted high-school romance. It doesn’t help that whenever Wanda tries to kiss or be affectionate to Ian, the disembodied voice of Melanie (that only Wanda and the audience can hear) shouts pithy one-liners like “What do you think you’re doing?” or “You did NOT just kiss him!”
It’s interesting to compare The Host with 2009’s Daybreakers – where a small human resistance fights back against an Earth overtaken by vampires. Where that film used the setting to great dramatic effect, The Host disregards the world it creates and instead focuses on a boring group of teenagers.
Antonio Pinto’s score is one of the films saving graces. His swirling synthesisers perfectly suit the re-imagined alien Earth, but seeing as most of the film takes place in the desert, there is a limit to how effective they can be at creating mood and atmosphere.
At a shade over 2 hours, The Host feels slow. It takes a long time for Melanie/Wanderer to find the human resistance and when she does, the pace seem to go even slower. Once the film fully shifts into love triangle mode, any hope of decent and thought-provoking science fiction gives way to trashy teen romance.