The Host

Written by Stephenie Meyer, the best-selling author of the Twilight series, “The Host” is about an alien species named Souls who occupy different planets and help the worlds reach perfection, but this comes with a catch. During their invasion of Earth, the Souls are inserted into a human host and conquer their minds and bodies, taking away the beauty of free will.

A sparse number of humans remain and are the resistance. One of them is Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan). While she and her little brother are on the run, she meets another free human, Jared (Max Irons). Together they head towards Melanie’s uncle’s hideout, hoping to finally reach safety. Before they make it, however, Melanie is captured. A Soul named Wanderer is inserted into her body, but Melanie’s strong will power allows her to fight with the Wanderer and to eventually earn the alien’s sympathy.

Though written and directed by Andrew Niccol, the film isn’t as strong as his previous films: “The Truman Show” or “Gattaca”. The movie has its positive themes and shows the resilience of the human spirit, but it remains primarily a teen romance with an emerging love triangle. The acting is top notch, but I felt the movie could have been so much more. Regardless though, it’s an interesting movie and a bit thought provoking.

The violence is pretty heavy. Some people commit suicide rather than be taken by the Souls. A father shoots himself (off screen). Two men purposely run their vehicle into a concrete barrier and another throws herself out of a window. After her fall, she lands loudly in the street, and she is shown bruised and bloodied. A Soul wants to be killed after it’s extracted.

A man is shot in the head; he then lies in a puddle of blood. There are several headbutts and punches thrown, and bullets fired. When the humans capture Wanderer, she is slapped twice for being the enemy. Another tries to kill her by pulling her into a river. She later lies to protect her assailant. She is also choked by another male character. Scientific experiments are performed in trying to extract the souls. After the failed extractions, dead humans are shown with slices in their necks, and the Souls are dead on the floor.

At times, Melanie wears revealing clothes, from tank tops to a thin nightgown. She tells Jared that when he touches her, she doesn’t want him to stop. There is one sex scene where she is in a bra, and they kiss in bed. Jared’s back is shown. She kisses her two love interests several times, but she and Jared share the most passionate kisses in the movie.

Although Wanderer is essentially the enemy, the humans slowly give her the benefit of the doubt, and she proves herself to be trustworthy. They show her their secret community within a volcano. Despite losing the battle and nearing extinction, the humans haven’t lost hope and continue to survive and show forgiveness. A slight comparison can be made for people who die for their Christian faith within the pages of our history, and daily in other countries, that aren’t blessed with religious freedom. It reminded me of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

I don’t personally recommend “The Host”. Although the focus of the film is more on the romance side, it did bring up the complexity of being a human and having the will to survive. I felt the themes could have been so much stronger, if they would have been more of the focal point. However, the performances are very notable and helped strengthen the film.

Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Mild—“Oh G*d” (4), “damn” (1), “hell” (6) / Sex/Nudity: Moderate to heavy

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

• Positive
• Neutral
• Negative
• Young people