The Host (2013)
Average Rating: 3.6/10
Reviews Counted: 117
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 107
Poorly scripted and dramatically ineffective, The Host is mostly stale and tedious, with moments of unintentional hilarity.
Average Rating: 4.2/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 26
Poorly scripted and dramatically ineffective, The Host is mostly stale and tedious, with moments of unintentional hilarity.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 46,618
Movie Info
What if everything you love was taken from you in the blink of an eye? "The Host" is the next epic love story from the creator of the "Twilight Saga," worldwide bestselling author, Stephenie Meyer. When an unseen enemy threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories, Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) will risk everything to protect the people she cares most about - Jared (Max Irons), Ian (Jake Abel), her brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury) and her Uncle Jeb (William Hurt)
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Cast
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Saoirse Ronan
Melanie, Wanderer -
Max Irons
Jared Howe -
Jake Abel
Ian -
Chandler Canterbury
Jamie -
Diane Kruger
The Seeker -
Frances Fisher
Maggie -
William Hurt
Jeb
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The Host Trailer & Photos
All Critics (117) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (107) | DVD (2)
This is pretty silly stuff, Twi-lite if you will, but played with maximum solemnity, no discernible humor and minimal excitement.
Top Critic[A] bizarre Saturday Night Live sketch about a girl with a bratty alien inside her.
The Host isn't very good as a romance. There's not very much passion on screen, which makes the film a poor cousin to Twilight.
The movie's structure is awkward. There's no real narrative thrust.
The Host's infelicities-drab dialogue, ridiculous plotting, more emotional crises than there is story-are enlivened by its thematic eccentricities.
Fear and dread of "the other" have long ruled American science fiction, fantasy, suspense thrillers and politics... How jarring then, and refreshing, to see The Host... take the invaders' point of view.
The Host fails as a romance, but it also struggles as an adventure film. The body-snatching angle has been done before, and the aliens... aren't menacing enough.
Oh, the silly movies we must endure. "The Host" is perhaps one of the most brain-dead sci-fi love stories to come along in many years.
What sort of worked on the page crashes and burns on the screen, as even an actress of Ronan's caliber can't make these self-debates anything but ridiculous.
It's all very confusing, and not very interesting.
Beyond Meyer's trite-and-untrue formula (supernatural love triangle, exotic locale, family values and kisses as daring and transgressive), corpse-stiff dialogue, flat action sequences and a confused allegory make this movie particularly stultifying piffle
You might despise the 'Twilight' series and still find something to appreciate here...at least it's original.
Catnip for the cooing teen female set but far less engaging and rewarding for anyone else.
And you thought Twilight was bad...
This limply directed, solidly boring slice of sci-fi twaddle features humanoid aliens who spend much of their screen time staring blankly into the middle distance with glazed eyes. About 10 minutes into this dross, you'll know what that feels like.
Just like her Twilight series, Stephenie Meyer's 2008 novel The Host becomes another feature in which people are standing around and brooding ( ... ) Proof that it's not easy to make thoughts seem riveting when little is happening.
Niccol crafts some arresting imagery, though the slow pacing and droning new age score makes everything feel like an endless Ambien commercial.
Resistance is futile.
It's a reasonably intriguing premise, but the alien invasion soon takes a back seat to the kind of tiresome teen angst where crucial plot points hinge on a kiss.
So badly scripted, performed and directed that it literally destroyed my faith in humanity.
Three bodies plus four minds is some fertile arithmetic, but The Host can't be bothered with the intellectual or kinky ramifications of its setup.
There's much grave talk of souls in this sci-fi romance. Ironic, then, that it ends up being such a soulless and trifling affair.
It's bewildering how sci-fi aficionado Andrew Niccol ("Gattaca," "The Truman Show") could mastermind such a parasitic mess.
Yeah...um...no...don't ever do this again please.
Come back Bella and Edward - all is forgiven.
Saoirse Ronan is a talented young actress but the silly dialogue and convoluted plot make this movie average in so many ways.
Audience Reviews for The Host
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- Jeb: I always liked Science-Fiction stories; never dreamed I'd be living in one.
- Wanderer: Be happy Mel that after living so many lives, I've finally found something to die for.
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- Ian: You are not leaving me.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh or Rotten? | 42 days ago | 138 |
| They call those "Professional Reviews?" | 23 days ago | 94 |
| Fuck no | 2 months ago | 93 |
| To all the Twilight haters | 6 months ago | 59 |
| Lower than I expected it to be. | 6 months ago | 53 |
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Foreign Titles
- Seelen (DE)
- Les Âmes Vagabondes (FR)
If your a teenage girl, maybe around 13 you might love this movie. Otherwise, do not waste your time.
I am not entirely sure what else to say. I guess if this movie where the only plot lined story on at 3am in the middle of the night, when you have insomnia, then it might be worth watching, if your quite bored and have little else to do. The special effects are good enough. The setting is semi-absurd.
The aliens themselves lack character, culture, definition, and the human characters equally lack emotional depth, character definition.
There seems to be little in the way of character development either, and the "conflict" that normally drives the storyline was pretty inconsistent, and basically non-existent, same goes for the resolution and climax of the story.