The Host Reviews
Canada.com
Yes. It all feels weird and just a little awkward, but thanks to Ronan and the endless layers of well-intentioned meaning, The Host finds enough schmaltzy charm to bid its guests adieu without embarrassment.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Top CriticThe 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.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
Neither romantic nor fake romantic, and not at all ridiculous, The Host has an atmosphere that is cold, austere and sardonic.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
DustinPutman.com
An original sci-fi vision from writer-director Andrew Niccol, one that takes chances, falls on its face a time or two, and otherwise works as well as it does because of how brazenly different it dares to be.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Salt Lake Tribune
Meyer's romantic sense, cribbed from the back pages of a junior-high girl's Trapper Keeper, is given a bit of depth by the strong cast - particularly Ronan.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Screen-Space
Simply dismissing The Host as a shallow Invasion of the Body Snatchers/Romeo and Juliet mash-up would be to ignore how effectively it will play to large herds of mall-dwellers.
Sci-Fi Movie Page
If making a Stephanie Meyers adaptation far less annoying than any of the Twilight movies helps [Andrew Niccol] get his next project, it will have been worth it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
If nothing else, the movie serves as an excellent substitute for the book: better art direction and a quarter of the adjectives.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Niccol helps The Host survive as a sci-fi movie even as he's saddled with the Twilight author's source material.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)
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
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)
You might despise the 'Twilight' series and still find something to appreciate here...at least it's original.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
TheMovieReport.com
Catnip for the cooing teen female set but far less engaging and rewarding for anyone else.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Film Racket
And you thought Twilight was bad...
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
3AW
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
Birmingham Mail
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Niccol crafts some arresting imagery, though the slow pacing and droning new age score makes everything feel like an endless Ambien commercial.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
SFX Magazine
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/5
Triple J
So badly scripted, performed and directed that it literally destroyed my faith in humanity.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
