VIDEO: The Host (2013)

by · May 12, 2014

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Cecil’s Mainstream May continues with the 2013 film The Host.

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  • CaptainCalvinCat

    And now I know, how Stephanie Meyer could frak up Stargate.
    Although… after Stargate Universe… she can have it. *gnnngh*

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      I’m pretty sure she could mess up just about anything.

  • Alexa

    Haven’t seen the movie myself but I have to agree with Lindsay Ellis’ aka Nostalgia Chick’s anger at how the film was angled as “Science Fiction-For Women!” I mean really? T_T But to be fair its nice that in this film we can take a break from the over exaggerated gloominess of the Pacific Northwest and as you said enjoy some really nice cinematography. But that and some of the decent acting is kind of hard to enjoy when that one dude and Wanda are basically using and well abusing Melanie’s body. Its really creepy…

    And now for a rant: Stephanie Meyer can say she’s all for women all she wants, but she is completely delusional. Her bitching against her critics that she wrote awesome female charterers in Twilight is really undercut by the fact that all of them are side or supporting characters and not once does her protagonist take the initiative like them. And defending Bella’s actions and thoughts as just acts of her dealing with her “true love” (and she deems Edward the bestest, greatest, boyfriend in fiction ^eyerolls*), is total bullshit. Here’s a link to her lame defenses:
    http://stepheniemeyer.com/nm_thestory.html

    And yes this has all been stated before, but it bears repeating: This woman is kind of crazy…

    • CaptainCalvinCat

      Oh, I watched the movie – because I wanted to see, if I would just be unfair to Miss Meyers. I was forced to watch “Twillight” but I thought “come on, Cal – maybe it just has something to do with the fact, that Vampires are just not your cup of tea. Maybe, just maybe, in a setting, in which you are feeling more comfortable and at home – which is definitely Sci-Fi – you can enjoy it.”

      And yes – basically, I enjoyed that fest of crap more than Twilight. But thiat is, as if I had said, that I’d enjoy getting a dental filling more than getting a tooth ripped out of my body.^^

      Although – let’s be honest here: Stephanie Meyers does the same thing as I do with Fanfic.
      She is writing the same characters over and over and over again, just changing the names. ^^

      • Cecil_Trachenburg

        The best thing to come out of Twilight is the Rifftrax riffs of them. :)

    • Zyz
      • Alexa

        Well if you are a feminist you shouldn’t be hating women, its about seeing that women and men are equal, not just work wise but socially. And yeah feminism is also not about hating men either…

      • Cecil_Trachenburg

        For me Twilight, well New Moon, was borderline unwatchable. This at least looked beautiful and Ronan’s acting was great. (aside from her terrible dialog)

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Meyer is just out of her damn mind. Bella is one of the worst female characters ever written. She’s whiny and incredibly co-dependant. Plus, no matter what anyone does for her, she is unappreciative. Just a terrible unlikeable person.

      The Host has interesting ideas but Meyer is just not a strong enough storyteller to be able to flesh those ideas out into something beyond the basics.

      Patricia Briggs writes incredibly strong female protagonists but since her books aren’t really marketed towards tweens, the studios want nothing to do with them. A shame really, her Mercy Thompson books would make for awesome movies.

      • Alexa

        The problem mostly lies with how Bella is supposed to be a stand in for the readers to insert themselves, that’s why she has no real discernible personality herself. And I just hate Meyer’s lame ass excuse that Bella got all bent out of shape when Edward left, because it was true love and someone who is your other half leaving you is the worst thing ever and blah blah blah. I’m saying you can’t miss someone but the way Bella went about it makes her obsessively psycho.

        • Sofie Liv

          And you could say.. well.. most RPG video game characters serves that exact same function as well.. they still take action and do all the damn work themselves.

          Heck, Peter Parker was written to be like that by the beginning, he still does stuff, lots of stuff. So that she’s supposed to be a blank slade like some kind of a Link figure.. is hardly any excuse.

  • Thomas Stockel

    I wonder if Meyer had not been one of the producers, would the film have been better? Because like you pointed out, Gattica is an outstanding movie and I like Lord of War. I think Niccol is a good director but perhaps he was far too hampered by a Fundamentalist whackjob? Or was the fact Meyer’s name was attached to this at all meant the movie was doomed to failure, in the same way no one takes any of M. Night’s projects seriously any more?

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Niccol wrote this for the screen but Meyer had a good say in what went on in the film, so I have a feeling you are on the money. Most likely some stuff could have been streamlined but then I could see Meyer saying “but it will take away from the meaning of how deep their love goes!” Just like her idiotic decision to leave like 5 pages blank in New Moon to show how Bella’s life is empty without Edward.

      Niccol is a great director and thankfully this hasn’t seemed to hurt his career.

  • Moppet

    Wow. I loved Gattaca. So looking at this, I haven’t seen the movie, it’s kind of beautiful to look at. Too bad about the actual content. The actors actually seem to be doing a good job, so the flaws that are here are all the more deeply felt. The visuals, the actors and more look right – but the writing?

    I’m not sure I could enjoy this one, not even from a so bad it’s good angle. I suppose I should at least give it a chance on that level. Just standing back and going, “This is going to be terrible” be it right, or wrong, probably isn’t the way to actually judge a film for myself. You are right about the visuals here, no doubt about that, it’s beautiful. One of the things I noted was the effect for the eyes, I’ve seen quite a few attempts at ‘strange’ eyes that had to be maintained throughout a film, and many of them settle on contacts for that, too often contacts that just look like plastic. Not eyes. The eyes here are a well maintained effect, they look eery and unsettling, but also a bit beautiful. Whatever the films other problems (and I’m not sure it’s the “film’s” problems as much as the source material’s/writer’s problems) there is some beauty here.

    Somehow, for me, that actually makes it worse. I’ve been avoiding this one for awhile. I should probably give it the watch, if for no other reason than fairness, or whatever.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Gattaca is so frikkin good. The dialog, much of it taken from the book, is why this is so bland.

      It’s beautiful to look at and fun to goof on. I kind of wished the Rifftrax guys would have done a video on it.

      I will give credit. Like you said, the eyes look wonderful. They really nailed it there.

  • Muthsarah

    Saoirse Ronan turned down a sizable supporting role in Anna Karenina (directed by Joe Wright, who also directed Hanna, and my fave of 2012) for a lead role in this. Kinda understandable, since it coulda made her a star overnight. But still, Leo Tolstoy….or Stephenie Meyer. Hope she’s still doing OK after this.

    I will take your advice and avoid this one. You showed so many clips of the the leads kissing, I must interpret that that was the real point of the movie all along. Between Meyer and Kurtzman/Orci, I’m getting increasingly convinced that pop culture that doesn’t appeal to the lowest-common-denominator won’t outlive any of us.

    • CAFR

      She’s in The Grand Budapest Hotel. It’s a small role, but it’s quite important. She’ll be okay.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      To be fair, that role would have taken up a lot of time and it wasn’t a lead. Plus, she wouldn’t have been able to do Byzantium and that was really good.

  • $36060516

    Probably wasn’t hard to get William Hurt. This was the movie he starred in two years before “The Host.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKRft3GGfJE

  • Sykes

    I actually had considered watching this film out of morbid curiosity…and now I’m glad I didn’t. This 18 minutes was about all I could stand, and that’s only because of the format of the review. By the way, good job as usual, Cecil!

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Thanks! That’s what I’m here for. :)

  • hiroyuki tanaka

    I made an edit of this movie in which, amongst other changes:
    – It’s Wanda’s story, thus no Melanie voiceovers
    – Wanda suffers flashbacks of Melanie’s memories and is compelled to journey to the desert camp
    – The love triangle is angled as Wanda trying to figure out humanity
    – Wanda realizes her people are conquerors, and so she willingly sacrifices herself so Melanie can be restored

    • $36060516

      I’m a fan of shiny, chrome cars, so made an edit where the movie is about a shiny, chrome car in love with a desert cactus possessed by an alien. It’s a short movie.

      • Cecil_Trachenburg

        lol

      • hiroyuki tanaka

        Touche. I’m just saying there is a better film to be found in the material if one plays up its strengths and mitigates its weaknesses.

        • $36060516

          Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound snarky. I think it’s a valid and interesting thing for you to have done which takes technical skill and analysis of the storytelling, and I didn’t mean to make fun of it. Just had that weird image of a silly fan edit pop into my head and blurted it out.

    • Zee Panda

      Unlike this movie, your version sounds intriguing.

  • KLLRFRST

    Honestly, if peaceful parasite aliens wanted to find hosts on Earth, they would have had an easier time if didn’t hunt people down, kill them, and shove an alien into their necks.

    They should have shown up with the heal-all spray and said, “We are totally non-violent, and don’t want to force anything on anyone. We come with this awesome heal-all spray, and all we want in exchange for access to it is for people to willingly volunteer their bodies after they die”. BOOM. Everybody wins. We get the cure to cancer, aliens get host bodies, and when a loved one dies in a car crash, just pop in an alien and they’re alive again (sort of).

    • $36060516

      But part of the horror of zombie movies and invasion of the bodysnatchers type movies (as well as, in real life, Alzheimer’s) is seeing one’s loved ones’ bodies but their personality is no longer inside — I think people might be too creeped out by this.

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