Post by garbulky on Jul 22, 2014 3:20:44 GMT -5
My wife and I must be one of the few people that actually liked this movie.
www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/the-host-review-a-blunt-force-shart-in-the-eye-of-sci-fi.php
Pajiba calls it a "blunt force sh*rt in the eye of sci-fi"
and Rotten tomatoes gives it a stunning 8% rating.
For those keeping count, spiderman 3 - the one with the villains being James Franco on a flying skateboard, a bad guy who melts in water (sandman), and Eric foreman from that 70's show - made a 63%.
I feel a movie needs to be enjoyed for what it is. And I went in expecting a teen movie. And luckily I was rewarded with something unexpected.
The basic plot is that aliens have taken over the world by inhaibiting people's minds. And the twist being that things are better!
These are some of the nicest aliens in all history!
Our heroine Melanie is one of the few people who appear to have a resistance towards being inhabited, which happens about 5 minutes in and the rest of the time is spent with her talking to her alien co-inhabitant who now has full control of her body.
And that's where the movie piqued my interest because as I watched the whole movie, I realized this movie was really not about Melanie at all. It was about her Co-inhabitant an intriguing 1000 year old planet hopping traveller alien being called "the wanderer". Whose name quickly gets shortened to <sigh> Wanda.
And it was how the actress portrayed this being that really turned the table.
So it was interesting that the entire movie was really about this alien, her journey which just happens to catch us up at the tail end of her thousand years of life, and not so much the Heroine's. It also poses a few questions the viewers in an understated way. The more interesting bits is when the humans who knew Melanie encounter this alien who is sympathetic to them but now looks like Melanie and how their views change about her over time.
Another concept I thought interesting was:
**SPOILER** The aliens looked like a small jellyfish made out of light. Which is interesting as jellyfish are immortal and it appears these are. What the aliens were were a parasitic organism that had evolved all the way to the extreme and figured out how to live forever. They could not support themselves and were essentially just an immortal brain. And they didn't have to worry about organs and a body wasting away as they could simply switch bodies when one was done.
So we enjoyed it. )
The cons:
This is indeed a teen movie. Think the notebook for sci-fi. So you're going to have a 1000 year old alien faling for a man -or two - who is twenty years of age. A love quadrangle happens. The villains are weak.
The biggest improvement in technology the aliens apparently did was to make every vehicle in chrome. And I do mean every single thing that moves.
Watch it for a twist on the usual invasion stories, a good lead actress, and twilight inspired romance.
It's hard to recommend it as this is a love it or hate it type of deal. But if you like that fair, go for it!
