The Host

THE HOST

Director : Andrew Niccol

Year : 2013

Genre : Fantasy Romance

Rating : **

 

Despite huge critical derision, the 'Twilight' franchise has become one of the most successful and popular film series of all time. Based on the books of Stephanie Meyers, the films told the story of a love triangle between a vampire, a werewolf and a mortal girl. Although the target of critical hatred and constant mockery in the media, the movies found a large teenage fan base, earning nearly three and a half billion dollars worldwide. Now that that franchise has finished, filmmakers have turned to Meyers' other works for inspiration and next on the conveyor belt was 'The Host', a love story concerning humans and aliens. To say that the 'Twilight' 'films are better than this movie is a massive understatement. It is a poorly written, poorly acted, poorly directed, overly long, boring, dull, sappy and ridiculously silly film that makes a laughing stock of it's pretty impressive cast. Starring Soairse Ronan, William Hurt, Diane Kruger and Max Irons as well as being directed and written by Andrew Niccol, 'The Host' had the potential to be great. Sadly, it isn't. Opening to just as must venom-filled hatred as the 'Twilight' films, the movie fared badly at the box office and a proposed sequel has been put on hiatus. Hopefully, it will never be green-lit and I have a sneaking suspicion it won't be.

Set in the near future, the majority of the human race has been possessed by unseen alien parasites, leaving only small populations of humans like Melanie (Ronan) scattered throughout the world. Upon being captured by the one of the invaders, Melanie finds her body claimed by an alien called Wanderer and in the process of inhabiting her, the life form is deeply affected by its hosts vivid dreams, conscience and memories. Despite being the enemy, Wanderer is compassionate and soon allows Melanie to control her body and helps to save mankind. While doing so, Wanderer explores true love and the meaning of what it is to be truly human.

Since the 'Twilight' saga, we have seen a number of strange movies in which creatures from gothic literature and folklore are crossed with teen romance stories. So far this year, we have had 'Beautiful Creatures' and 'Warm Bodies'; films which crossed the legends of witches and zombies  with heart warming tales of forbidden love. Unfortunately, while these movies contained a sly dig at their respective folklores and turned the ideologies and conventions that come with these monsters on their heads, 'The Host' does nothing to improve or develop the mythology of aliens. Only distinguishable by their glowing fluorescent eyes, the extra terrestrials in 'The Host' are absolutely nothing special; they possess none of the characteristics of aliens and their behaviour doesn't resemble anything alien-like at all. Due to the fact that they possess human hosts, all the aliens walking around just look like regular people with bright eyes. If a filmmaker is going to make us believe in the aliens on screen then they should at least make them distinguishable from all other characters.

Andrew Niccol can write and direct impressive material. He wrote the main bulk of the story for Steven Spielberg's sadly maligned 'The Terminal' and even wrote 'The Truman Show'; a film which showcased the true talents of Jim Carrey (an impressive feat indeed). However, 'The Host' displays all of the characteristics of both a first time director and a first time writer. From the hokey dialogue to the one dimensional characterisations, from the choppy editing to the non imaginative camera work, 'The Host' plays as a straight to DVD movie. And if it wasn't for the talents of it's formidable cast, I am sure that this film would have been shelved long ago. At over two hours, 'The Host' is painfully long, mostly due to it's long scenes of boring chit chat between characters, little to no exposition and far too much conclusion and too many scenes of speech like dialogue. Roland Emmerich really has nothing on Andrew Niccol, who makes Bill Pullman's excruciatingly cheesy lines from 'Independence Day' read like David Mamet or Aaron Sorkin. I guess I am so annoyed about Niccol's direction because I know that he has the ability to be great. Here, he shows the talents of a director that would make Michael Bay feel good about himself. Not a good thing I'm sure you'd agree.

The screenplay for 'The Host' is possibly the worst of the year, leading me to believe that the novel on which it is based is just as bad. Sure the dialogue in the 'Twilight' movies wasn't perfect, but the filmmakers knew how over dramatic and pantomime-y the entire premise of it's source was and as a result, made the films overdramatic and very camp. Not everyone's cup of tea, I for one enjoyed the audacity of the 'Twilight' films and although 'New Moon' was admittedly rubbish, I found the other movies to have a knowing knowledge of it's ridiculousness. 'The Host' on the other hand seems to take itself deadly seriously, making for an absurd and rather obnoxious movie. Obviously pandering to it's intended audience, the film throws multiple romance strings at us with aplomb, despite the fact that they are about as interesting as the existence of synthetic sponge and containing an element of rather overt misogyny, 'The Host' clearly shows a disdain for it's teenage girl public who would blindly pay good money to fund their next horrible chapter in this dull and lifeless story.

One of the biggest gripes that people about 'Twilight' was with it's lazy characterisations and faux Shakespearean dialogue. While Kristen Stewart came under heavy scrutiny for her portrayal of Bella Swan, I found her character to be an interesting portrait of a girl fighting between her heart and her head. However, while I have no qualms with Stewart's acting abilities, she cannot compare to the mesmeric talents of Irish born Soairse Ronan and here is where my biggest problem with 'The Host' lies. From her Academy Award nominated performance in 'Atonement' to her BAFTA nominated role 'The Lovely Bones', Ronan has become known as one of the most reliable and accomplished actresses in British cinema, despite the fact she is only 19. Her performances have earned her many awards including Critics Circle awards, Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards and even (and most importantly) the coveted Kick Ass Award for Best Female Action Star for her role in Joe Wright's 'Hanna'. Unfortunately, I can't imagine that her role as Melanie in 'The Host' will earn her many awards. Her performance isn't necessarily bad and I'm sure she is doing the best she can with such asinine material. But for an actress of her calibre, I was hoping for a character I could care about and relate to. Instead she is reduced to a glowing eyed sex object who becomes the target of soppy, unexplained love from a number of bland and lifeless teenage boys. Added to this a supporting cast which includes William Hurt, Diane Kruger, Max Irons and Jake Abel, 'The Host' is a well cast but poorly acted mess.

I am sure that the director and the producers of 'The Host' had hoped that the film would be the next 'Twilight'. Throwing $40 million away, 'The Host' goes to town on it's cast, it's production design and visual effects. However (or should I say thankfully), teenage girls didn't fall for the blatant window dressing. Bored of conventional and dull romances, adolescents stayed away in their thousands. Failing to break even, 'The Host' was both a critical and commercial failure and even fans of 'Twilight' turned their backs on this sappy, conventional, pointless and boring, boring, boring, boring, BORING film. I wouldn't call myself a fan of 'Twilight', but I certainly have no problems it, but this....

WHY IS SOAIRSE RONAN IN THIS FILM?