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The Host poster

CAST
SAOIRSE RONAN
JAKE ABEL
EMILY BROWNING
CHANDLER CANTERBURY
FRANCES FISHER
BOYD HOLBROOK
WILLIAM HURT
MAX IRONS
DIANE KRUGER
SCOTT LAWRENCE
ALEX RUSSELL

BASED ON THE NOVEL WRITTEN BY
STEPHENIE MEYER

WRITTEN BY
ANDREW NICCOL

PRODUCED BY
STEPHANIE MEYER
PAULA MAE SCHWARTZ
STEVE SCHWARTZ
NICK WECHSLER

DIRECTED BY
ANDREW NICCOL

GENRE
ROMANCE
SCIENCE FICTION
THRILLER

RATED
AUS: M
UK: 12A
USA: PG-13

RUNNING TIME
125 MIN

 

THE HOST (2013)

The search for a successor to the Twilight series brings with it more of the same dreary romantic teen fantasy in The Host.

The Twilight franchise has given us many bizarre cinematic moments: vampires who sparkle in the sun, werewolves who converse telepathically, and a vampire/human hybrid suffering from the worst case of CGI facial reconstruction ever to disgrace the silver screen.

The Host (based on a novel by Twilight author Stephenie Meyers) features plenty doozies of its own, which isn’t a surprise considering its lead protagonist is a lovelorn teenage girl possessed by an alien creature that looks like illuminated coral. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie.

Let’s back a track a bit, shall we? Earth is finally at peace with no violence or poverty, the result of an alien invasion where the human populace play hosts to tiny, sparkly alien beings (what is it with Meyers and sparkly things?)

Saorise Ronan stars as resistance fighter Melanie who is overtaken by nomad alien Wanderer. Problem is Melanie’s mind/spirit/whatever is still kicking, resulting in two warring beings sharing the same body.

The director of The Host is Andrew Niccol, a filmmaker many viewed with high potential thanks to his stellar work on Gattaca and Lord of War. Unfortunately for Niccol The Host plays slave to Meyer’s convoluted characters and scenarios, which no filmmaker could churn into gold (four tried and failed on the Twilight series).

This leads to moments ranging from laughable to absurd, mainly revolving around a wide eyed Ronan arguing with a persistently nagging presence in her head, which gets especially catty when it involves love interests Max Irons and Ian O’Shea to make for one of the more unique love triangles this side of a soap opera. This results in a screen kiss that can only be described as schizophrenic-teen-fantasy-camp that will leave many in stitches for the wrong reasons.

There are some exceptions. William Hurt brings gravitas to his role of elder resistance fighter, and Diane Kruger provides a much needed distraction as an alien “Seeker”, a white suit dressed, chrome finished sports car driving, dogged tracker hunting down Maggie/Wanderer.

But like everything else brand Stephenie Meyer The Host is a mostly empty, dull and underwhelming genre re-hash. Here’s praying that poor box office makes it the last of its kind.

**

 

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