From the same writer that gave us that crap known as Twilight, sorry money making crap, comes the story of The Host. The movie is based on the book of the same name which Stephenie Meyer had released in 2008. In it, the earth has been invaded by a parasitical alien race known as ‘Souls’ and they have taken over all of the earth and control all but a handful of humans. Written and directed by Andrew Niccol, the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, William Hurt, and Diane Kruger. Unlike Twilight movies, The Host has not done well has been universally panned by critics. I shudder to think why. Anyway let’s take a look at this film.

Ok so sometime in the future this extraterrestrial parasitic aliens called “Souls”, arrive on earth and have taken over most of the humans. To identify someone who has been taken over by an alien, you just need to look at their eyes – a silver ring forms around the pupil of those whose bodies have been take over. Pretty soon all but a few handful of humans remain –  but the earth is peaceful for once. The aliens do not quarrel, fight or bicker. There are no wars, no hostilities, no illness, the environment is healed, no hunger, no violence – it’s ‘perfect’ because of the aliens who deemed us to be “too violent” and took over. This is when the alien Soul known as Wanderer is implanted into the body of a young woman named Melanie Stryder, who is dying, injured while trying to escape from a patrol of Soul controlled people. Wanderer can still hear Melanie talking to her and since the latter’s will is so strong, she is not easily controlled like the vast majority of humans. There is a struggle for control of the body and also a lady known as Seeker, is trying to get information about more humans in hiding from Melanie’s memory through Wanderer. Wanderer will only give partial information to Seeker, partly because of Melanie’s please and partly because she is a compassionate alien.

Wanderer learns that Melanie was captured while traveling with her brother, Jamie and her boyfriend, Jared Howe, to find Melanie’s uncle Jeb in the desert. However since Melanie is too strong, Seeker says that she will remove Wanderer from her body and infuse herself with Melanie. After Melanie begs for help, Wanderer escapes in the night and heads out to the desert and after crashing the car, she walks for miles. She is found by Jeb and his band of survivors, among which are Melanie’s younger brother Jaime, boyfriend Jared and aunt  who distrust Wanderer and keep her a prisoner but she manages to win them over slowly and finally has to convince them that Melanie is still alive. Ofcourse then you have the love triangle – Melanie still loves her boyfriend Jared but to confuse things Wanderer falls in love with a young man named Ian. Weird right? Wanderer is almost killed by a hostile human named Kyle but she survives and even helps to rescue him. Having gained the trust of the humans, she is later appalled when she sees that in their lab they are trying to remove the aliens from their human hosts, failing and killing both. When Jaime becomes ill due to a cut on his leg that becomes infected, Wanderer heads to a alien run hospital along with Ian & jared and steals medicine to heal him. When they get back they find Seeker waiting for them and although she attacks them, Jeb shoots her. Later Wanderer shows the humans how to remove the alien safely from a host – coax them with love and peace! (I almost barfed at this point) The alien comes out willingly and Lacey, the human regains control of her body.

hey then send the Seeker to a planet far enough from Earth that it will never return within anyone’s lifetime. Although Wanderer wants to die and asks the doctor to ensure that she is killed, when she is removed from Melanie, she is infused with a dying human named Pet, a human who was left brain-dead after the Soul inside her was removed, thereby ensuring that Wanderer can live without harming another soul. Initially dismayed, as she has wanted to die having lived for so long in so many alien host bodies, Wanderer accepts what they did. Now with a body of her own, she and Ian form a relationship, while Melanie is finally reunited with Jared. The movie ends, several months later, with the four young people being caught by Souls who appear to be Seekers, but when confronted by one, do not notice his unusual practice of brandishing a gun. After being searched, they discover that the group are actually a team of surviving humans, who reveal that there are several other groups as well. The Soul who is with them reveals that he has sided with the flourishing human resistance, as Wanderer has, and they may not be the last to do so.

I found some of the stuff incredibly corny and silly concepts for serious science fiction and it really focuses more on the romance aspects of things. Disappointed but what did I expect? This author has reduced fearsome vampires to become sparkly little teenage boys! Anyway, visually I have no complaints as it is a stunning movie to look at but it offers hardly any value. I do like some of the alien concept though, not too much. Hmmm I shall give it a 5.5 outta 10!