The Host (2013)

If I had payed to see this I would've asked for my money back afterwards... that's how bad it was.

One of the worst book adaptations I've ever seen. I read the book a couple of years back and absolutely LOVED it. It's a great book - intelligent, innovative, entertaining, and addicting. To put it in perspective, the book in about 600 pages, and the move was about maybe 200 pages of it? It made me sad because they turned it from Hunger Games status to Twilight status - and Stephanie Myers is to blame there. Known for Twilight and vampire love stories, the writers and director of the Host tailored to the sales rather than the story. They cut out all the action and background information and just gave the love triangle - which is exactly what the Twilight movies did. Honestly, it was just so bad. My friends never read the book and were so confused the entire way. I had to explain everything to them afterwards because in the movie they took out all the background information! They skipped over WAY too much. The result of the movie: a futuristic story about aliens taking over the mind's and body's of the human race which leads to rebellion and a cheesy love triangle. ALSO: The ending sets up for a sequel to this movie - a sequel that doesn't exist because Myers never wrote a second book of the Host... so I don't know what they're trying to pull but seriously I don't get it. PLEASE I BEG YOU DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. I'M TIRED OF THE FILM INDUSTRY GETTING AWAY WITH THE MURDER OF GREAT NOVELS. DON'T SEE IT!!!!!!!!

Fmovies: I have not read the book, so I only had a vague synopsis of the story from a movie trailer. After watching the movie, I want to read the book to discover more details that a 2 hour movie cannot possibly accomplish for such a lenghty novel.

I found the movie intriguing and well written. It captures the distinct personalities of both Melanie and Wanda, which could have been a disaster. It was sci-fi movie that explored many emotions and was a great escape for 2 hours. The cinematography was awesome from the desert scenes to the futuristic.

It is different from the "Twilight Series" and I wish people would not compare the two. Hopefully, there will be a sequel!

I came to see this film because of Andrew Niccol (Gattaca is my favorite movie),a bit afraid of Stephanie Meyer's work but still open minded to a quite good SF plot with some romance. But I found myself in front of a terrible teen-movie. And not the good kind like we used to see in the 90's. Artistic work is completely absent. The world shown in this film is interesting but not described sufficiently.

I found that the narrative form was quite ineffective and the dialogs were so dull that not a single piece of "philosophy" can be extracted.

On the top of all that, the love story is foretold and occupies the 3/4 of the scenes. And the acting (even Saoirse Ronan that already did very good job in other movies) was so lame, you can't relate to the characters.

In my opinion, this film lacks of an audacious directing to be good. There was material but it has been spoiled.

If you're over 15, I don't recommend this film. If you're under, well I don't recommend it neither, but I'll understand if you find some pleasure to see it.

The Host fmovies. I have read the book before the movie came out, but ill give a movie review separate from my book ideals of what it should have been.

As a movie on its own, its good. Not great. They have a little bit of action, and when i say little, i do mean little (under 5 minutes). There are some chrome vehicles, modern looking bland clothing etc. This movie is really about what makes us human. With a love triangle. Not nearly as dominant as it was in twilight. A very interesting premise for a movie. The acting was great, I really loved Jake Abel as Ian O'Shea. Dian kruger added some depth to her seeker attitude. Max Irons I found to be the weakest actor of the bunch, some of his lines were delivered poorly ("so help me"), but what really ties the cast in is William Hurt.He ties them all together, and ads some charm to his cliché lines that makes him very likable. Other noticeable actors were Scot Lawrence (Doc) and Francis Fisher (Maggie), but neither were given the screen time needed to develop any sort of charter, although it would have been ve3ry interesting to see. Nice scenery, and nice shots. The music (and some scene lacking) was great and added a indie touch to it.

Now, based off the book this movie kinda blew it. it was extremely different, cutting out characters and adding things that never were. I personally felt that by making all the Aliens dress the same, drive the same vehicles took away from the depth of the battle between the resistance and aliens. They were supposed to be creative, and find individualism in human hosts, which was very lacking. Instead the movie went in the direction of aliens turning humans into one mass of boring un unique sheep. I also wish they had kept a few of Wanda's experiences from other worlds in the movie, even as flash backs etc. This movie lacked as a sci-fi, as all we see are humans with contacts. It lacked as a romance as her love interest was gone for most of it.

If anything its a good movie about : "what is considered human? a and how shall we react that makes us human".

Not bad, i enjoyed it anyways, and my husband actually stuck around to watch it too lol./

Outside of The Twilight Saga, The Host is Stephanie Meyer's biggest novel and since the success of her supernatural series, her sci-fi novel has been adapted. There is a stronger cast and director for The Host, than the Twilight Saga, but how does it fare on its own terms? In the near future, Earth has been conquered by a parasitic alien race known as The Souls, who implant themselves into human bodies. Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) is a member of the human resistance who gets captured when she tries to protect her younger brother, Jamie (Chandler Canterbury). Melanie gets implanted with a Soul, called Wanderer, with the aliens planning to use Melanie's memories in order to find the human resistance. As Wanderer explores Melanie's memories, she finds out about Melanie's lover, Jared (Max Irons) and the pair plan an escape to the desert to find the resistance camp. Within the camp, Wanderer falls for another human, Ian (Jake Abel), causing problems for all of them.

Let's get the comparisons with Twilight out the way; yes there is a is love triangle (or should that be a love square?), The Host has a much better lead actress with Ronan then Kirsten Stewart and has a stronger supporting cast, with the likes of William Hurt and Diane Kruger. Andrew Niccol also gives the film more creditability behind the camera, acting as both the writer and director. The Host has interesting ideas that had many potential avenues to explore: but unfortunately it focuses more on the love story instead of all of the other aspects that could have lead to a much more meaningful film.

Ronan does rise above the material and gives very strong performance, as you would expect from her. This is even more remarkable that she has to argue and talk with herself, like Homer Simpson arguing with his own brain. Whilst there was the potential for themes of locked in syndrome as Melanie is trapped inside her own head, fighting to control her own body or going through a more literal, internal conflict. But it turns really silly when she argues with herself over two men, as opposed of having a much more difficult time of having a stronger conflict within her character. Ronan gets battered and beaten throughout the film as she gets hit, verbally abused and discriminated against and yet, still persevere through everything she's up against.

Whilst Ronan does a good job, the two men she is meant to be conflicted about are blank stales. Neither actor has much of a personality or character and they are very indistinguishable from each other. Ronan has no choice but to carry the film, considering that there was nothing going for the main love interests. At least Hurt and Kruger looked like they were having fun with their roles and were highly professional with their performances.

The idea of some sort of insider for an oppressive regime having an awakening, usually because a love interest and ends up turning against their own side has been used before. We have seen it in novels like Nineteen-Eighty Four, Fahrenheit 451 and We and films such as Metropolis and THX-1138. The Host does twist this age old idea in sci-fi, even if the execution was lacking.

The Host had a really strong premise with opportunities to explore multiple themes. They could have been themes about identity, the battle within the mind, split personalities, trust and how humans would survive after this invasion. But like Twilight, the film only touches on these concepts and puts all of its focus in the wrong places.

Much like Twilight,

First: I really enjoyed this movie. I love sci-fy and when it gets to be combined with a story of fully dynamic characters that show the heart of being what we would call human is deeper than being a homo sapien. An engaging plot riddled with surprising moments that showed me where I have room to grow in expanding my own understanding of how our differences are much less important that our similarities.

Second: This is one of those movies that can best be appreciated by someone who enjoys the trailer. The movie is as advertised and from the heart. If you want to hold it to the public lens of what most people think is good then continue to read reviews written by people paid to write them for that general public. If you are less interested in an Oscar nomination and more interested in a store that speaks in your heart, then you probably shouldn't care about the TomatoMeter so much. Enjoy it if you thought you would before you looked up it's rating, you still will.