The Host (2013 film)

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The Host

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Andrew Niccol
Produced by
Screenplay by Andrew Niccol
Based on The Host 
by Stephenie Meyer
Starring
Music by Antonio Pinto
Cinematography Roberto Schaefer
Editing by Thomas J. Nordberg
Studio Nick Wechsler Productions
Silver Reel
Distributed by Open Road Films
Universal Pictures
ChockStone Pictures
ShowMaker Works
Release dates
  • March 29, 2013 (2013-03-29)
Running time 125 minutes[1][2]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $40 million[2]
Box office $48,227,201[2]

The Host is a 2013 American romantic science fiction thriller film adapted from Stephenie Meyer's novel of the same name. Written and directed by Andrew Niccol,[3] the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, William Hurt, and Diane Kruger. Released on March 29, 2013, the film has been generally panned by critics.

Plot

The human race has been taken over by small parasitic aliens called "Souls". The Souls travel to distant planets en masse, in individual capsules, inserting themselves individually into a host body of that planet's dominant species. The Soul completely replaces the consciousness of its host, though they are able to access the host's memories. Occupied hosts are identifiable by silver rings that form in the hosts' eyes.

Melanie Stryder is captured and infused with a soul called "Wanderer". Wanderer is asked by Seeker to access Melanie's memories in order to discover the location of a pocket of non-assimilated humans. Surprisingly, Melanie's consciousness has not been eliminated, and it struggles for control of her body. Melanie and Wanderer are able to carry out an internal conversation with each other, forming something of a friendship.

Wanderer does share with Seeker that Melanie was traveling with her brother, Jamie and her boyfriend, Jared Howe, to find Melanie's uncle Jeb in the desert. Wanderer admits that Melanie is still present, so Seeker decides to be transferred into Melanie's body to get the information herself. With the help of Melanie, Wanderer escapes and makes her way to the desert, where she is eventually found by Jeb, who takes her to a series of caves hidden inside a mountain, where the pocket of humans (including Jared and Jamie) is hiding.

Wanderer's presence in the shelter is met with hostility by all but Jeb. Seeing this, Melanie instructs Wanderer not to tell anyone she is still alive, fearing repercussions, though she later allows her to tell Jamie, to put his mind at ease. Wanderer begins interacting with the humans and participating in their harvest, and slowly begins to gain their trust, as well as forming a bond with human Ian O'Shea. Through this, she begins to sympathize with them, and question her species' actions.

Seeker leads a search party into the desert to find Wanderer. They intercept one of the shelter's supply teams, and in the ensuing chase, Aaron and Brandt commit suicide to avoid capture and conversion. During the chase, Seeker accidentally kills another Soul, leading her superiors to call off the search.

Returning to the caves, a vengeful Jared and Kyle move to kill Wanderer, causing Jamie to reveal that Melanie's consciousness is still alive. Ian accepts this, showing concern for the two beings in one body. Jared refuses to believe, but later kisses Wanderer, provoking Melanie to slap him away for cheating on "her", making Jared realize that she is indeed still alive. Kyle makes another attempt on Wanderer's life, but she knocks him into a deadly whirlpool. She pulls him to safety and does not tell the others that he had attacked her. Ian believes that Kyle had attacked Wanderer and tells her that he loves her, insisting that Wanderer's own personality (such as protecting Kyle) is what he loves, rather than Melanie's body. Wanderer admits that, while occupying Melanie's body, she must love Jared, but that she has feelings of her own, and the two share a kiss, creating an unusual love triangle—three bodies and four minds.

Wanderer discovers the community's medical facility, where Doc has been experimenting with ways to remove Souls and allow the host's mind to regain control, though only killing many Souls and Hosts so far. Traumatized, she rushes from the facility. After isolating herself for several days, Melanie learns that Jamie is critically ill and she infiltrates a Soul medical facility to steal some of their alien medicine, saving Jamie's life.

Seeker has continued looking for Wanderer on her own. Jeb captures Seeker and imprisons her in the caves. Wanderer offers to show Doc the proper method of removing Souls, on the condition that he remove her from Melanie's body and let her die. Doc uses the technique to successfully remove Seeker from her host, with Host and Soul both surviving. Wanderer takes the Seeker alien to a Soul space-travel site, where she sends it to a planet far enough from Earth that it can not return within anyone's lifetime. The plan is to continue freeing hosts and sending the souls to distant planets.

After learning that Wanderer wants to die when she is removed, the humans are upset. Doc instead inserts Wanderer into Pet (Emily Browning), a human who was left brain-dead after the Soul inside her was removed, thereby ensuring that Wanderer can live without harming a human. Now with a body of her own, she and Ian form a relationship, while Melanie is finally reunited with Jared.

A few months later, while on a supply-gathering trip, Wanderer, Melanie, Ian and Jared are captured. They discover that their captors are actually humans, who reveal that there are several other human groups as well. The also learn that there is a Soul with this group that has sided with the flourishing human resistance, as Wanderer has, and they may not be the last Souls to do so.

Cast

Main article: List of The Host characters

Production

Development

Producers Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz, and Paula Mae Schwartz acquired the film rights to The Host in September 2009, but Open Road Films later acquired the film rights, and made Stephenie Meyer, Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz, and Paula Mae Schwartz the main producers.[10] Andrew Niccol was hired to write the screenplay and to direct the film. In February 2011, Susanna White was hired to replace Niccol as director, but he later resumed the role in May 2011.

Saoirse Ronan was also cast in May as Melanie Stryder/Wanderer. On June 27, the release date was set for the film for March 29, 2013, and it was also announced that principal photography would begin in February 2012, in Louisiana and New Mexico.[6][11]

Release

Distributed by Open Road Films, the film was released theatrically on March 29, 2013. The first official trailer was released on March 22, 2012 and was later shown before The Hunger Games.[12]

Home media

The Host was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 9, 2013.[13]

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $48,227,201 worldwide, of which $26,627,201 was from North America. It opened at #6 at the US box office, and for its opening weekend grossed $10,600,112; screened at 3,202 theaters it averaged $3,310 per theatre.[2]

Critical response

The Host has been near universally panned by critics. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives a 8% rating based on 118 reviews, with an average score of 3.6/10. The site's consensus states: "Poorly scripted and dramatically ineffective, The Host is mostly stale and tedious, with moments of unintentional hilarity.".[14] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 35 based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[15]

CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade audiences gave the film was a "B-" on a scale of A+ to F.[16]

Roth Cornet of IGN gave it a "mediocre" score of 5/10, stating that the movie is "unintentionally laughable" and "frustratingly absurd". Cornet says that it could have made an interesting story but that the contradictions of the peaceful but parasitic Souls were not fully explained, in the case of the character Seeker only given a shallow unsatisfying explanation. She praises Ronan for her performance and blames a "fundamentally flawed" script.[17] Ben Kenigsberg of Time Out magazine blames the source material, crediting Niccol for making the best of it, but primarily blaming the high-definition–video cinematography saying it makes "what once would have been a lush, grand-scale blockbuster appear cheap and televisual."[18]

The Host was the penultimate film to be reviewed by film critic Roger Ebert before his death on April 4, 2013, and the last major film to be published in his lifetime. He rated the film 2.5/4 stars, saying "The Host is top-heavy with profound, sonorous conversations, all tending to sound like farewells. The movie is so consistently pitched at the same note, indeed, that the structure robs it of possibilities for dramatic tension."[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "THE HOST (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. 2013-03-20. Retrieved 2013-03-20. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "The Host (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2013-05-13. 
  3. ↑ Schutte, Lauren. "Andrew Niccol to Direct 'The Host'". Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
  4. ↑ Staskiewicz, Keith. "Saoirse Ronan cast in film of Stephenie Meyer's 'The Host'". Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bentley, Jean. "Max Irons, Jake Abel land male leads in Stephenie Meyer's 'The Host'". Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Meyer, Stephenie. "The Host: The Movie". Retrieved 16 February 2012. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Sneider, Jeff. "Canterbury, Holbrook land 'Host'". Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
  8. ↑ Fleming, Mike. "Diane Kruger To Play The Seeker In Stephenie Meyer’s ‘The Host’". Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
  9. ↑ "Review: Stephenie Meyer's 'The Host'". Retrieved 26 December 2012. 
  10. ↑ McClintock, Pamela. "'The Host' to be Released by Open Road Films in March 2013". Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
  11. ↑ Wilkinson, Amy. "'The Host' Lands Release Date: Here's What We Know About Stephenie Meyer Adaptation". Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
  12. ↑ The Host official trailer. YouTube. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
  13. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/The-Host-Saoirse-Ronan/dp/B0090SI4LU/
  14. ↑ "The Host (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 2013-03-31. 
  15. ↑ "The Host". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 16, 2013. 
  16. ↑ Brad Brevet (March 31, 2013). "G.I. Joe: Retaliation' Tops Weekend Box Office While 'The Host' Flops". Ropeofsilicon.com. 
  17. ↑ Roth Cornet (2013-02-14). "IGN The Host Review". IGN. Retrieved 2013-03-31. 
  18. ↑ Ben Kenigsberg. "The Host: movie review (PG-13)". Time out. 
  19. ↑ Ebert, Roger (27 March 2013). "The Host". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 7 April 2013. 

External links

Andrew Niccol filmography
Director/writer
Writer only
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