Since the Twilight saga is over, Stephenie Meyer has had to prove that she wasn't a one trick pony. That franchise was such a success, so The Host, her take on science fiction, must have connected with some audience, right? No. The Host premiered in theaters in March and is already hitting home video on July 9. The film didn't do Twilight-style business for Universal and Open Road. That's because the movie is boring, dull and without any sense of thrills or direction. In fact, it goes in no directions.
The Host is set in a near future after an alien invasion of earth. These aliens are disembodied beings, taking over the dominant species of whatever planet they invade. They have already taken over the majority of the human race, but there are a few pockets of resistance. Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) is one of those humans. She’s managed to avoid being invaded, but in the first of many suicide attempts in the film, she jumps out of a window to save her boyfriend Jared (Max Irons) and her brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury). Melanie is captured and Wanderer is put in her body.
We then meet Seeker (Diane Kruger), who wants Wanderer to find out where the human resistance is by wandering through Melanie’s memories. But Melanie is more powerful than Wanderer expected and she convinces Wanderer that the best way to find the humans is to run from Seeker and her minions. Eventually, Melanie and Wanderer find uncle Jeb (William Hurt) and the human resistance he leads. She also meets Ian (Jake Abel), who begins to fall in love with Wanderer as they become more used to having her around.
The problem with this two-hour movie starts the moment Melanie/Wanderer gets to the volcano. You could say that it starts right when the character starts having laughable internal struggles, but those can be overcome. What can’t be is writer/director Andrew Niccol (In Time) and his decision to keep her in the volcano. There is no drama when you spend a gigantic chunk of the movie having your character constantly having to take tours of her surroundings. What could have been a tense, thrilling chase between Wanderer and Seeker is cut to make room for more talking and walking.
Meyer and Niccol also have so many ideas running through their heads that they don’t know which one to pick. So instead, they go with all of them. Unfortunately, this means that each idea is underdeveloped. The romance falls flat, the thrills are sucked dry and the science fiction is just horrible. Seriously, if these aliens are disembodied creatures and can take over any physical body, why don’t they take over birds to search the desert? In this future, have humans really not come up with better ‘aerial searching devices’ than helicopters? And why are they all driving really expensive sports cars?
The acting sure doesn’t help. Ronan shows some skills, but she’s bland. And I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the actors playing Ian and Jake for a good part of the movie. Kruger was great in Inglorious Basterds, but she just isn’t a chilling villain at all.
Blu-Ray: The Host hits Blu-ray on July 9 with just a few bonus features. There’s two-and-a-half minutes of inconsequential deleted scenes, a laughable seven-minute piece called “Bringing The Host to Life” with Meyer talking about how awesome everything is and a commentary from Niccol and Meyer. It also comes with the DVD, which surprisingly includes all the bonus material. Most of the studios have been holding back some features to make them Blu-ray exclusives, but I suppose since the extras are so short, there was no reason for Universal to do that.
Universal also released The Host for digital download early on June 25.
The Host is a movie that tries so hard to be good science fiction, but falls flat in every regard. This isn’t ‘so bad it’s good’ - more like ‘so bad, it’s laughable.’ There’s a reason why it grossed just $48 million worldwide before disappearing. I’m sure the story might work as a book, but it doesn’t as a movie.
