The current score on IMDb is too low. This is a fairly good film. It's worth about a 7.5. To see the true IMDb score, click the link for the number of users and look at the bell graph. Eliminate the 1s and 10s, and you'll see that what you're left with is a solid 7.
Saoirse Ronan was perfectly cast for this role as the sensitive, conflicted alien slowly gaining the trust of the human survivor group. Diane Kruger and William Hurt were also good. (Once again, I'm struck how so many Hollywood movies lately have non-American actors playing Americans. What's that all about?)
"The Host" is part of a new genre I would call "sci fi for chicks". If it bothers you to see a "soft" science-fiction film with love-sick young people, noble suicides, impossibly handsome young men, aliens with emotions, etc., don't go see this one. It's the old male v. female dilemma: Should we kill the hated aliens or coax them out and make friends with them?
There was not enough exposition at the start about the horrors of the alien invasion. The writers and producers seem to have assumed that moviegoers would understand why the characters want to "remain human" and why they would refer to a human-hosted alien as "it". Perhaps it was better explained in the book.
The device of Melinda's consciousness remaining fully alert, and Wanda and Melinda actually talking to each other for our benefit, might put some moviegoers off. (I'm not sure. I haven't read the other reviews.) However, once I suspended my disbelief, I was able to go with the flow.
They threw the male viewers a bone: Kruger and Ronan, to start. there were a few car and motorcycle chases (involving futuristic-looking chrome vehicles), and shoot outs. Hey, this is a Hollywood movie, after all.
The theme of humans hosting aliens is not original, but they took the concept in a different direction. The movie is slick and well made, but there were a few clichés and many, many aspects of the story that were glossed over, left unexplained or just not realistic. The survivors here were mostly young Hollywood pretty boys, not a ragged group of tough survivors (like on "Walking Dead", for example.)
Still, I appreciated some of the details of the "good alien" theme, like a society of honest and trustworthy aliens that doesn't need cash to function, or where they will simply give you their car if you need it, or where everyone drives at the speed limit. (God forbid we should have a society like that! Kill them!)
And I liked the part where the other seekers looked at the evil seeker (played by Kruger) and pointed out that she was getting a little too obsessed. After all the aliens saw themselves as the good guys. There are many species that coexist in symbiosis. It's interesting to think that maybe it would do our species good. This is actually a very old theme. There's not much difference between "her body has been taken over by an alien" and "she is filled with the Holy Spirit", or even "she is possessed by a demon".
Saoirse Ronan was perfectly cast for this role as the sensitive, conflicted alien slowly gaining the trust of the human survivor group. Diane Kruger and William Hurt were also good. (Once again, I'm struck how so many Hollywood movies lately have non-American actors playing Americans. What's that all about?)
"The Host" is part of a new genre I would call "sci fi for chicks". If it bothers you to see a "soft" science-fiction film with love-sick young people, noble suicides, impossibly handsome young men, aliens with emotions, etc., don't go see this one. It's the old male v. female dilemma: Should we kill the hated aliens or coax them out and make friends with them?
There was not enough exposition at the start about the horrors of the alien invasion. The writers and producers seem to have assumed that moviegoers would understand why the characters want to "remain human" and why they would refer to a human-hosted alien as "it". Perhaps it was better explained in the book.
The device of Melinda's consciousness remaining fully alert, and Wanda and Melinda actually talking to each other for our benefit, might put some moviegoers off. (I'm not sure. I haven't read the other reviews.) However, once I suspended my disbelief, I was able to go with the flow.
They threw the male viewers a bone: Kruger and Ronan, to start. there were a few car and motorcycle chases (involving futuristic-looking chrome vehicles), and shoot outs. Hey, this is a Hollywood movie, after all.
The theme of humans hosting aliens is not original, but they took the concept in a different direction. The movie is slick and well made, but there were a few clichés and many, many aspects of the story that were glossed over, left unexplained or just not realistic. The survivors here were mostly young Hollywood pretty boys, not a ragged group of tough survivors (like on "Walking Dead", for example.)
Still, I appreciated some of the details of the "good alien" theme, like a society of honest and trustworthy aliens that doesn't need cash to function, or where they will simply give you their car if you need it, or where everyone drives at the speed limit. (God forbid we should have a society like that! Kill them!)
And I liked the part where the other seekers looked at the evil seeker (played by Kruger) and pointed out that she was getting a little too obsessed. After all the aliens saw themselves as the good guys. There are many species that coexist in symbiosis. It's interesting to think that maybe it would do our species good. This is actually a very old theme. There's not much difference between "her body has been taken over by an alien" and "she is filled with the Holy Spirit", or even "she is possessed by a demon".