The Host

Monday 1st April 2013

Director: Andrew Niccol
Year: 2013
Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, Chandler Canterbury, Max Irons, Jake Abel, William Hurt, Scott Lawrence, Boyd Holbrook

Oops, it's taken me a while to blog about this movie! I was keen to both watch and read The Host, as I enjoyed the Twilight saga so much, and The Host is written by the same author, Stephenie Meyer. I started reading the novel before making it to the cinema, but just couldn't get into it at all. It seemed to move at such a slow pace, and I just found it a bit of a slog. So when I went to see the movie at the cinema, I was nowhere near having finished the book.

This turned out not to be such a bad thing. The movie moves along at a much faster pace, and even only having read the first tenth of the book, I knew that a lot of detail had been cut out. I had no problem with this at all, and quite enjoyed the much speedier pace of the movie. This isn't to say that The Host was a brilliant watch, but it was enjoyable enough for a Bank Holiday weekend cinema visit. 

The basic premise is that aliens have taken over human beings bodies, and replaced human's souls with their own. Wanda is a soul that has been placed in Melanie's body, but Melanie refuses to give it up and leads Wanda to a group of humans who haven't yet been taken over by souls. Melanie's brother and partner are living there, and Wanda slowly comes to understand why humans behave the way they do.

It's a relatively satisfying movie, and now that I've read a lot more of the book, that's become more enjoyable as well. I can't complain about the pace of the movie, but I do know that in a few months time I'm unlikely to find the story that memorable.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5