Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) is one of the last surviving humans that haven’t been taken over by the parasitic beings known as Souls who have taken over human bodies and use them as hosts.  The Souls have perfected human society and got rid of war as they have healed the Earth.  Melanie is running from a group of Seekers when she crashes through a window in a hotel to what would have been her death, but they save her and implant her with an old Soul known as Wanderer.  A Seeker (Diane Kruger) is questioning Wanderer on her memories of Melanie, but Melanie still exists in her body and is fighting against Wanderer’s attempts to reveal where her kid brother Jamie and Jared- the man she loves went to.  Soon Wanderer finds herself at odds with Melanie and they escape with Melanie directing Wanderer to where Jared and Jamie are at.  The Seeker is focused on finding where the last pocket of resistance is hiding. 

THE HOST starts out with a great premise and yet sputters out into a meta-philosophical story/ weak romance story.  This film isn’t the best work of writer/ director Andrew Niccol.  He has taken the novel by Stephanie Meyer and turned it into a Cliff Notes version of the novel without even trying to make the movie better than the novel I had a hard time trying to read through.  It is a faithful adaptation, but I do think Andrew should have sometimes used the book as inspiration and strengthened the areas where the novel was weak.  THE HOST ends up being a halfway interesting emotional sci-fi story which will become weaker with each viewing.   I enjoyed it, but I found the story to be bogged down by the emotional storytelling and not try to find a way to create real conflict.  Why should we care for the humans who have destroyed the world vs. the Souls who have healed the Earth?  I wanted more of the conflict between Souls and humans where THE HOST focuses on the story of Melanie/ Wanderer too much without giving it real meaty conflict.  This is one of the movies you want to wait to rent instead spending hard earned cash on watching it in theaters or buying the DVD/ Blu-ray.  If you want the best of Andrew Niccol, I suggest that you go watch GATTACA or THE TRUMAN SHOW.

This movie review is (c)3-30-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com