By Emily Sullivan
Associate Editor
The world is no longer our own.
The film “The Host,” based on the novel by “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer, showcases a world which has been taken over by aliens that call themselves the Souls. These caterpillar-like creatures are inserted into the brains of every human being, causing the human to fade away, leaving only the peace-loving Soul in the body.
When the Soul Wanderer, nicknamed Wanda (Saoirse Ronan, “The Lovely Bones”), is inserted into the body of a young woman named Melanie Stryder, she expects her experience on Earth to be like the rest of the Souls. But there is one problem: Melanie won’t fade away.
Driven by a promise she made to her younger brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) and her boyfriend Jared (Max Irons, “Red Riding Hood”), Melanie is determined to find her Uncle Jeb’s (William Hurt, “Into The Wild”) mountain hideout, where Jamie and Jared have most likely gone.
But Wanda’s Seeker (Diane Kruger, “Unknown”), one of the leaders of the Souls in charge of finding humans to possess, knows Melanie is still in Wanda’s head. She knows that if Wanda can look deep enough into Melanie’s memories, she can find the human resistance. Once she finds the humans, they must decide whether or not they can trust Wanda. And, of course, Wanda must choose between Jared and Ian (Jake Abel, “I Am Number Four”), the human who has fallen in love with Wanda for the Soul that she is.
It wouldn’t be a Stephenie Meyer story if there wasn’t an annoying love triangle.
Overall, the movie was well- executed and had good pacing. Ronan does a fantastic job of portraying both Wanda and Melanie, although she gave Melanie a very inconsistent southern accent.
Ronan captured the essence of the Soul Wanderer, but allowed the feisty and stubborn Melanie to shine through at the right moments. Abel gave a particularly amazing performance as the kind and sensitive Ian O’Shea as though he stepped of the pages of the book. Hurt also gave a stellar performance as the slightly crazy but brilliant Uncle Jeb.
If you are looking for a good book-to-movie adaptation, don’t waste your money on this film. While some scenes were adapted word-for-word from the book, they were few and far between. It is understandable that it was necessary to cut down a book over 400 pages long, but the screenwriter chose to cut out some of the most important parts of the story that were major moments of character development. Many important characters, such as the kind old man Walter who plays a key part in Wanda’s story, were cut out of the movie. Characters that were killed off in the movie were alive at the end of the book. Meyer has told interviewers that she is in the process of writing two sequels to “The Host.” I hope she hadn’t planned to focus on any of these characters.
Overall, “The Host” was a horrible adaptation. But if you are looking for a romantic, action-filled Sci-Fi film a la “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, look no further. “The Host” is the perfect film for you.
