Movie Review: The Host

Today was bitterly cold -- for Houston at least. I went to bed early and snuggled under the electric blanket since hubby is not home to keep me warm. I've spent most of the evening watching obscure films, courtesy of Netflix. In fact, I've stayed up way too late. I'm getting ready to call it quits now.

The Host was one of the best of the movies I sampled, but I was surprised by how similar in premise it was to the Stargate movie and series, Stargate SG-1, with the superior but physically vulnerable G'oauld, as they were called in the Stargate mythology.


When an alien race implants a parasite soul named Wanderer into Melanie Stryder's body, she resists the takeover. Soon, Melanie and Wanderer become reluctant allies as they go on a quest to track down the men they love in this sci-fi thriller.

Still, this was a rather compelling though uneven young adult flick directed by Andrew Niccol and starring Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, William Hurt, Frances Fisher, Jake Abel, and Max Irons. (Mr. Niccol wrote Gattaca and Lord of War.) I think the main problem with it was that it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a romance or a science fiction movie.

I did a little online sleuthing and discovered the book on which the movie was based was by Stephenie Meyer of Twilight fame. I don't read YA very often so I was unaware of her journey from vampires to aliens. This review is no judgment of her book since movies and books are two disparate entities that often bear no resemblance to each other. 

Takeaway Truth

The movie is a good reworking of the G'oauld premise and is fairly decent though it suffers from being strung out to reach a certain time length.