I wrote a little while back about how I was conflicted about seeing the movie The Host, based on the novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. The reason I was conflicted is because I actually liked reading The Host, but I don’t particularly want to support Stephenie Meyer.
I ended up seeing the movie anyway.
It was not as bad as you might think. It followed the book really, really closely, which amazed me. Especially since one of the previews before the movie was for the sequel to Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Did anyone else see that movie? I mean, it sucked by anyone’s standards, but it was even worse if you read and enjoyed the books. That movie was nothing like the books. It was a rip-off of the books written by someone who had read the back cover. Or maybe just the title. Who asked for a sequel to that incredibly bad movie?
Anyway.
The Host was a good book. It had strong, female characters, it had a pretty interesting plot that was only marginally stolen from Animorphs. It had two love interests, one for the female protagonist, and another for the alien inhabiting the female protagonist. I found this to be pretty cool, and really well done.
The biggest problem I found I had with the movie was that the girl who plays Melanie (female protagonist who gets inhabited by peaceful, mind-controlling, probably communist alien) was only good at playing one half of her dual personality. See, in the story, Melanie is this strong woman who refuses to give her mind over to the little alien slug in her brain. As a result, the alien and Melanie end up sharing a brain and a body. Melanie is not in control of her actions, but she’s still there in her head, yelling at the alien. The alien, meanwhile, is more soft spoken and gentle. So while the actress – Saoirse Ronan – was really good at playing the gentle alien bit, her portrayal of Melanie was unconvincing. She didn’t sound strong or confident at all, and all her lines as Melanie felt forced.
A lot of lines were delivered poorly by the younger actors, in my opinion. The older, more experienced actors were fine. And, randomly, so was the kid who played Jamie – Melanie’s younger brother. He was pretty decent.
Would I recommend seeing The Host in theaters? No. It only made 11 million dollars at the box office on its opening weekend for a reason. It just wasn’t executed very well, despite staying true to the book. Would I recommend seeing it at all? Sure. If you read and liked the book, you’d probably get a kick out of this movie. It just doesn’t seem extremely necessary to go see it in theaters like I did.
That was a lot of words with very few pictures. Have a hula hooping Mini Bex:
And a comic:
And a Word of the Day:
Word of the Day: Bastion (n) – 1. A fortified place. 2. Anything seen as preserving or protection some quality or condition.
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