The Host (2013)

Certificate:12A. Duration: 125 minutes. Genre: Sci-fi, Fantasy, Suspense, Thriller.

Director/Writer: Andrew Niccol. Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel.

I haven't read the book (by Stephanie Meyer), but the film, I think, was brilliant. Saoirse Ronan is an absolutely stunning actress. She's pretty too. The film's ending and trailer song, Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, is so amazing; I love it. My friends and I, when we went to see the film, practically screamed the song out at the end of the end of the movie, haha.

I will now attempt to compose a concise, spoiler-free summary of the film in the following paragraphs:

In a future time on Earth the human race has been invaded by an alien species who aim to better life on Earth for humanity. They are a peaceful race who work extremely well with one another, they don't use things like money and they help each other unconditionally as we later find out. This species, it is implied, have inhabited other planets and taken over their respective life forms to act in order to, perhaps, save their (dire/destructive/conflicting) situation or another reason unbeknownst to myself.

The main character, Melanie Stryder is taken over by an alien, Wanderer (later nicknamed Wanda), in the hope that Melanie's memories will be of use to the aliens in leading them to the Resistance (what they believe to be a majority of the last remaining humans), and they continue with, effectively, 2 minds in the same body. Wanda finds out about Melanie's past, including her younger brother, Jamie, and her lover, Jared Howe.

An alien is inserted into a human via slitting the back of their neck open and then taking out a white, glowing thing that looks like a see picture 1 out of a 3-dimensional metallic ovally thingy and holding it out to the cut in the neck. It kind of crawls in without managing to look creepy and insect-like.

But when one corrupted alien Seeker is determined to hunt down one of her own species who has sided with the humans, both species realise the other isn't so difficult to live with. It was just the idea of invasion and rebellion locking into place, fears long lived of both races. An important quote that makes you think, that I liked and that stands out for me, is from a conversation between Jared and Ian, J:"It's not human." I:"So we stop acting human?" This quote is also in the trailer and I think it just makes people stop and think about what they're doing and why, because it really is pointless. I like this film because it highlights the faults and dangers of what our lives now, of what society now, can lead us to do and believe.

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So, that was my film review of 'The Host' which I wrote for my school's newspaper a while back. It's a weird one, but I'm still improving (I still ain't got the hang of the whole review content formatting...) So yeah! Hope no-one got too bored, but is quite short, so.

Laters, dudes ;P