The Host
I was admittedly exited about this movie when it came out. I saw the trailer and my reaction was "Holy crap I want to see that!" It looked good, it had action, it had a creative and interesting premise. There was no reason for this not to be a good film. Then I heard it was a Stephenie Meyer adaptation. I have nothing against Stephenie Meyer, I'm sure that she's a pleasant person, and I'm sure she's written at least one thing I can safely call "good." It isn't Meyer who I hate, it's the films she's connected too. I've only ever seen The Host and New Moon, and this is probably the reason why I have this mental vendetta. Again, she's probably connected to at least one thing that's good and engaging that I can enjoy, the film The Host just isn't it.
Aliens invade earth in an Invasion of the Body Snatchers format. They posses the inhabitants and use adapted earth technology to fix the planet. There are lots of humans that fight the aliens because they don't want to be possessed. Melanie is one of these people who actually does get captured and possessed by an alien named Wanda, but Wanda can hear Melanie's thoughts. Wanda meets up with the rebel humans and the love squareangle ensues (More about this later). I can say this without giving any spoilers.
Now, let it be known, it's been at least 3 months since I saw this, so this review is going to be incredibly biased.
Overall, it's not a bad movie. The premise is interesting enough, and while it is a little bit stupid it does its best to turn you towards the internal conflict and the other interesting and more intelligent parts of the narrative.
My personal problem that I have with it is really just the amount of nitpicks that I have with this film. Not that these nitpicks exist, but the sheer number of nitpicks that I have. Granted, a lot of these nitpicks are incredibly subjective because of my scientific knowledge, but a lot of them are pretty generic.
List time!
1. The aliens.
Over the course of the film we see many demonstrations of the aliens incredibly socialist beliefs. We see Wanda borrow a car from a very willing alien, and later we see that medication and food are completely free and socialized. So now the question is this: Why does such a peace loving, polite, community driven species hostilely take over other civilizations. If Meyer is drawing a parallel to human history, I can't see it, but this just doesn't make sense in any possible context. A way I can get it to make sense is if the aliens are actually the universes plumbers. They come by, fix everything, stay a little while, and then leave.
I'm not sure why the humans are fighting these guys. We never actually hear if the aliens are staying permanently or not. If they are here to stay, lets get 'em! If they aren't, well, this is fantastic. The way I see it, someone came by and fixed all of your crap, isn't that good? Why are the humans fighting the aliens? There's a 50% chance that nothing bad will happen! In fact, this may be the factor we need to unite all of our societies. This could turn out great! Explain, Meyer! Please!
2. The aliens' stuff.
We see 2 pieces of alien technology throughout the running time of the film. The little egg shaped spaceships, and the spray bottle medication. That's it. Unless you count the stuff I'm going to talk about in the next nitpick, we hardly ever see any technology from an alien species that's been around for at least 50,000 earth years and has taken over many many different societies and cultures. You think we'd see more than 2 examples of advanced technology.
3. The visual design.
I have no problem with the cave system in New Mexico. It's an incredibly visually interesting environment, and I have no quarrels with that. What I'm talking about is the super technologically advanced absolutely amazing alien process of turning vehicles chrome. Why is all of their crap chrome? I mean, couldn't you have picked a less conspicuous texture? Blue? Blue would have looked cool. But instead we get chrome!
Another complaint I have here is where the aliens built their base of operations. It's a futuristic enough looking building to be a creation of the aliens, but at the same time, it could be man made architecture. If the latter is the case, why didn't they use a building like a hospital or a military base? Why specifically did the aliens pick out this one specific office complex from which to manage all their stuff? I know it was an artistic choice on the part of the filmmakers, but it just makes the aliens seem stupid.
4. The worm cave.
There are several scenes in the film where Melanie's little brother goes to a cave filled with some kind of glowing worms. The worms glow in the cave and give the appearance of the night sky. The boy tells Wanda that he comes here when he wants to see the sky again. Wait, what? I don't know if this is explained better in the book, but this place has wheat fields with gigantic holes in the ceiling for sunlight to get through. Just go there at night time and see the actual thing! Now the worm cave is a really cool environment, and it is the location for several important scenes, but there is no literary reason for this environment to exist!
5. The mirrors.
The big underground human settlement has those gigantic wheat fields that I talked about in the last nitpick. These wheat fields have gigantic mirrors that shine sunlight everywhere inside of the subterranean wheat field, and allow the wheat to grow. I'm not sure if this setup would work in real life or not, but that's not my complaint here. My complaint comes in a scene towards the middle of the film where everyone is harvesting wheat. Alien helicopters start flying over and they need to roll the mirrors on axis so that the helicopters can't see the reflections... wait, what?
The mirrors are reflecting light down into the wheat field, the helicopters shouldn't be getting shined on at all. And, (depending on which way the mirror goes when you move it) you may accidentally give away your position by shining the light up. This is an incredibly risky setup because you have a 50% chance of actually broadcasting where you are.
Also, aren't you already giving your position away by having those gigantic holes? They can see the wheat field plain as day! This is like building a meth lab out of Plexiglas, it is very very clear that you're doing something illegal. In which case, why aren't they using this mirror thing as a weapon? Shine it at the helicopter, blind the pilot and send it crashing into the mountainside. Yes, it might be unreliable and conspicuous but you've basically Macgyvered a missile launcher.
6. The love triangle.
Ah yes, you knew this was coming. The infamous Meyer love triangle clique.
Believe it or not, I like this love triangle. In comparison to other love triangles, it is very interesting. My quarrel with it is that it is inherently not a love triangle, but simultaneously is one. This love triangle is between Wanda and her boy friend and Melanie and her boyfriend. Normally this would just be two simultaneous relationships (like in The Holiday), but it is instead converted into a love triangle because Melanie and Wanda share a body.
There was obviously thought put into this, it is interesting to break into the psychology of the moment. Something that's genius about Melanie and Wanda is that because of their dynamic the audience knows what's going on. This is the same thing that Doctor Who does to keep the audience up to speed, the character that knows everything can explain stuff to the audience through the character that doesn't understand. In The Host, this element is expanded because the two characters can explain stuff about the two different societies they come from. Of course, the love triangle delves into the psychology of these two characters to make this a very thought provoking sub-plot as the characters need to explain their reasoning for their choices.
The whole thing is wonderfully acted (at least on the Melanie/Wanda end of things), and while it can seem very corny and inorganic at times it makes up for it with the character exploration.
...Good God, I'm complimenting this movie.
Yes the love triangle is an interesting and well acted sub-plot, but it falls flat because of the characters. Nobody in this movie has any personality at all. Granted that one cowboy guy has plenty of on-screen presence, but all the characters are one-dimensional stereotypes that purely exist to help the protagonist get from point A to point B of their character arc. All of the credibility comes from the actors. The characters are 1 dimensional and there is no character development for anybody, and although there are character arcs in this story, it's just the same "don't be racist" thing that you can get from much better stories! But I digress.
The main reason I included this as a nitpick, is because of what it is, a love squareangle. I say that this is a horrible example of a love triangle because it isn't a triangle. I have no problem with this, but it kills me. Love triangles are not a good writing tool for dramatic pieces (at least that's my opinion), so when a dramatic piece has a really good love triangle, I get excited. But sadly, this is objectively not a good love triangle because it isn't a love triangle. Granted, this argument is like saying Barnes and Noble is a terrible hardware store because it's a book store, but this isn't a flimsy argument. You wouldn't go to a Barnes and Noble to buy a hammer. What it has to offer is all right, it just wouldn't be what you want.
So, after all that, can this film be salvaged in any way?
Well, yes and no. See, there are good qualities about this film. It really racked up the budget and got Saroise Ronan, a good director, pretty decent props and sets, a song that I really like to be marketed with it, and engaging action sequences when it had an action sequence. But then we get to the writing.
I don't know if the book was better, I never read it, but this is one of the worst written films I've ever seen. And I have to say, this would have been a much better film, if someone else wrote it. I have nothing against Stephenie Meyer. I just think that in a story that explores a characters psychology, the character should actually have some psychology to be explored. Hey, maybe there's some underlying metaphor that I'm missing, but even if there is, a story can't run on that, nor what it already has going for it. It's just too blunt. Everything is too direct. This would have been a much more interesting conflict if someone else wrote the story.
Get off of our planet, and take your movie with you!
3/10
Aliens invade earth in an Invasion of the Body Snatchers format. They posses the inhabitants and use adapted earth technology to fix the planet. There are lots of humans that fight the aliens because they don't want to be possessed. Melanie is one of these people who actually does get captured and possessed by an alien named Wanda, but Wanda can hear Melanie's thoughts. Wanda meets up with the rebel humans and the love squareangle ensues (More about this later). I can say this without giving any spoilers.
Now, let it be known, it's been at least 3 months since I saw this, so this review is going to be incredibly biased.
Overall, it's not a bad movie. The premise is interesting enough, and while it is a little bit stupid it does its best to turn you towards the internal conflict and the other interesting and more intelligent parts of the narrative.
My personal problem that I have with it is really just the amount of nitpicks that I have with this film. Not that these nitpicks exist, but the sheer number of nitpicks that I have. Granted, a lot of these nitpicks are incredibly subjective because of my scientific knowledge, but a lot of them are pretty generic.
List time!
1. The aliens.
Over the course of the film we see many demonstrations of the aliens incredibly socialist beliefs. We see Wanda borrow a car from a very willing alien, and later we see that medication and food are completely free and socialized. So now the question is this: Why does such a peace loving, polite, community driven species hostilely take over other civilizations. If Meyer is drawing a parallel to human history, I can't see it, but this just doesn't make sense in any possible context. A way I can get it to make sense is if the aliens are actually the universes plumbers. They come by, fix everything, stay a little while, and then leave.
I'm not sure why the humans are fighting these guys. We never actually hear if the aliens are staying permanently or not. If they are here to stay, lets get 'em! If they aren't, well, this is fantastic. The way I see it, someone came by and fixed all of your crap, isn't that good? Why are the humans fighting the aliens? There's a 50% chance that nothing bad will happen! In fact, this may be the factor we need to unite all of our societies. This could turn out great! Explain, Meyer! Please!
2. The aliens' stuff.
We see 2 pieces of alien technology throughout the running time of the film. The little egg shaped spaceships, and the spray bottle medication. That's it. Unless you count the stuff I'm going to talk about in the next nitpick, we hardly ever see any technology from an alien species that's been around for at least 50,000 earth years and has taken over many many different societies and cultures. You think we'd see more than 2 examples of advanced technology.
3. The visual design.
I have no problem with the cave system in New Mexico. It's an incredibly visually interesting environment, and I have no quarrels with that. What I'm talking about is the super technologically advanced absolutely amazing alien process of turning vehicles chrome. Why is all of their crap chrome? I mean, couldn't you have picked a less conspicuous texture? Blue? Blue would have looked cool. But instead we get chrome!
Another complaint I have here is where the aliens built their base of operations. It's a futuristic enough looking building to be a creation of the aliens, but at the same time, it could be man made architecture. If the latter is the case, why didn't they use a building like a hospital or a military base? Why specifically did the aliens pick out this one specific office complex from which to manage all their stuff? I know it was an artistic choice on the part of the filmmakers, but it just makes the aliens seem stupid.
4. The worm cave.
There are several scenes in the film where Melanie's little brother goes to a cave filled with some kind of glowing worms. The worms glow in the cave and give the appearance of the night sky. The boy tells Wanda that he comes here when he wants to see the sky again. Wait, what? I don't know if this is explained better in the book, but this place has wheat fields with gigantic holes in the ceiling for sunlight to get through. Just go there at night time and see the actual thing! Now the worm cave is a really cool environment, and it is the location for several important scenes, but there is no literary reason for this environment to exist!
5. The mirrors.
The big underground human settlement has those gigantic wheat fields that I talked about in the last nitpick. These wheat fields have gigantic mirrors that shine sunlight everywhere inside of the subterranean wheat field, and allow the wheat to grow. I'm not sure if this setup would work in real life or not, but that's not my complaint here. My complaint comes in a scene towards the middle of the film where everyone is harvesting wheat. Alien helicopters start flying over and they need to roll the mirrors on axis so that the helicopters can't see the reflections... wait, what?
The mirrors are reflecting light down into the wheat field, the helicopters shouldn't be getting shined on at all. And, (depending on which way the mirror goes when you move it) you may accidentally give away your position by shining the light up. This is an incredibly risky setup because you have a 50% chance of actually broadcasting where you are.
Also, aren't you already giving your position away by having those gigantic holes? They can see the wheat field plain as day! This is like building a meth lab out of Plexiglas, it is very very clear that you're doing something illegal. In which case, why aren't they using this mirror thing as a weapon? Shine it at the helicopter, blind the pilot and send it crashing into the mountainside. Yes, it might be unreliable and conspicuous but you've basically Macgyvered a missile launcher.
6. The love triangle.
Ah yes, you knew this was coming. The infamous Meyer love triangle clique.
Believe it or not, I like this love triangle. In comparison to other love triangles, it is very interesting. My quarrel with it is that it is inherently not a love triangle, but simultaneously is one. This love triangle is between Wanda and her boy friend and Melanie and her boyfriend. Normally this would just be two simultaneous relationships (like in The Holiday), but it is instead converted into a love triangle because Melanie and Wanda share a body.
There was obviously thought put into this, it is interesting to break into the psychology of the moment. Something that's genius about Melanie and Wanda is that because of their dynamic the audience knows what's going on. This is the same thing that Doctor Who does to keep the audience up to speed, the character that knows everything can explain stuff to the audience through the character that doesn't understand. In The Host, this element is expanded because the two characters can explain stuff about the two different societies they come from. Of course, the love triangle delves into the psychology of these two characters to make this a very thought provoking sub-plot as the characters need to explain their reasoning for their choices.
The whole thing is wonderfully acted (at least on the Melanie/Wanda end of things), and while it can seem very corny and inorganic at times it makes up for it with the character exploration.
...Good God, I'm complimenting this movie.
Yes the love triangle is an interesting and well acted sub-plot, but it falls flat because of the characters. Nobody in this movie has any personality at all. Granted that one cowboy guy has plenty of on-screen presence, but all the characters are one-dimensional stereotypes that purely exist to help the protagonist get from point A to point B of their character arc. All of the credibility comes from the actors. The characters are 1 dimensional and there is no character development for anybody, and although there are character arcs in this story, it's just the same "don't be racist" thing that you can get from much better stories! But I digress.
The main reason I included this as a nitpick, is because of what it is, a love squareangle. I say that this is a horrible example of a love triangle because it isn't a triangle. I have no problem with this, but it kills me. Love triangles are not a good writing tool for dramatic pieces (at least that's my opinion), so when a dramatic piece has a really good love triangle, I get excited. But sadly, this is objectively not a good love triangle because it isn't a love triangle. Granted, this argument is like saying Barnes and Noble is a terrible hardware store because it's a book store, but this isn't a flimsy argument. You wouldn't go to a Barnes and Noble to buy a hammer. What it has to offer is all right, it just wouldn't be what you want.
So, after all that, can this film be salvaged in any way?
Well, yes and no. See, there are good qualities about this film. It really racked up the budget and got Saroise Ronan, a good director, pretty decent props and sets, a song that I really like to be marketed with it, and engaging action sequences when it had an action sequence. But then we get to the writing.
I don't know if the book was better, I never read it, but this is one of the worst written films I've ever seen. And I have to say, this would have been a much better film, if someone else wrote it. I have nothing against Stephenie Meyer. I just think that in a story that explores a characters psychology, the character should actually have some psychology to be explored. Hey, maybe there's some underlying metaphor that I'm missing, but even if there is, a story can't run on that, nor what it already has going for it. It's just too blunt. Everything is too direct. This would have been a much more interesting conflict if someone else wrote the story.
Get off of our planet, and take your movie with you!
3/10