The Host product reviews

I am a huge fan of Andrew Niccol's work, even before I knew who he was, I was a fan of his movies... S1m0ne, The Truman Show, Gattaca, In Time... loved them all utterly, mostly because I was aware of, and really appreciated, the underlying stories. But... when I discovered he had worked on the script for this one - based on a romance novel by the author of the Twilight Saga - well, frankly I was baffled as to what to expect.

Niccol has a great track record of taking social issues and framing them as sci-fI stories, giving us a semi-comfortable way to think about things we don't really want to think about. This time though, he wasn't writing a story, only a screenplay, so by definition he didn't have anywhere near as much leeway. Still, I was very impressed with what he managed to pull off.

If you can accept the pretence of an alien race able to infest and totally control a human - or "Host" - then you're probably a fan of Stargate, or should be. What made this a very "Stephenie Meyer" story was the almost trademarked "2 guys, 1 girl", with a twist... throw in an asexual alien parasite and you have "Twilight+". Where was the amazing social commentary from Niccol? His touch was in the Seeker chasing our wayward Wanderer. She had a dark secret of her own, hinted at throughout, revealed at the end.

So, what was the "Niccol Message"? That's a tough one to pin down. I suspect only he could answer that fully, and each viewer will have a slightly different perspective. For me, the message seemed to be one I have heard many time, seen a lot of, and always have to be aware of: "What you dislike the most in others, is often what you dislike most about yourself." How that applies to this... I leave for you to discover. Maybe you'll find a different message, maybe you won't.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie - though I didn't have any definite preconceptions about it, I was expecting something soppy, pointlessly over-melodramatic, and frankly far more of a chic-flick than the movie that unrolled in front of me. Yes, it's got romance and an overly-emotive plot - look who wrote the original story, after all - but it also had something going for it outside of that genre. The special effects were light - it wasn't a CGI fireworks spectacular - subtle, well developed and easily overlooked in favour of a more plot-driven movie. Not a family movie by any means, but certainly one it would be safe for couples to go and see. ;)