THE HOST – The Blu Review

I didn’t see THE HOST when it played theatrically, and after watching the Blu-ray, I’m glad I didn’t. THE HOST, more supernatural relationship fluff from “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer, is the type of juvenile melodrama that goes down easier while lying on the couch in the comfort of home. It’s far from wretched but I see why it was so poorly received.

THE HOST takes place in a distant future where a species of parasitic aliens, called “Souls” have invaded Earth after deeming humans too violent/wasteful to deserve the planet. Souls are implanted into a human host body rendering the consciousness of the original mind erased leaving only their memories and knowledge. “Wanderer”, a Soul who was given her name for not living more than one host’s life on any of eight previous planets, is placed in the body of recently captured Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), a member of an active resistance against the Souls (and one of the few remaining humans). Wanderer is asked by a Seeker (Souls that actively search for Earth’s remaining humans) to look through Melanie’s memories and see if there’s anything that can lead them to the resistance, but she is being mentally blocked, leading the Seeker to realize Melanie’s consciousness is still alive and resisting control. But since this is a Stephanie Meyer story, and she is a one trick pony (not even a good trick), there has to be a romantic triangle and wrinkle this time is that the human half of Ronan’s character, named Melanie, is into one generic hunky boy while her android half, Wanda, has it bad for another. There may have been a fun movie to take off from that notion, but THE HOST is not that movie. Adapted for the screen and directed by Andrew Niccol, THE HOST is an extraordinarily obtuse romance that teeters between youthful ignorance and unintentional hilarity on a pendulum of silliness. There is absolutely zero depth to be found in this ridiculous teenage romp disguised as an alien-invasion film as it strains your patience for stupidity and your exposure to shallow adolescent thinking. There are long stretches of this film where nothing much happens other than people gazing, either into the distance or at each other, bringing it to an interminable 125 minutes.

Meyer’s Twilight books spawned a lackluster film series that has lowered the standard for young adult entertainment and through its popularity has infected studio decision-making to give us more of the same ruined formula. Fortunately THE HOST bombed so no sequel need be feared. But there is the new Blu-ray from Universal which will be released this Tuesday, July 9th and I’ve seen it!

The hi-def image is an AVC-encoded 2.40:1 presentation. The high-definition transfer does a pretty solid job of balancing the charming atmosphere set in the realistic world with the fantastical world of the “Souls” . There is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the film’s texture. There is a nice element of grain present, but the film doesn’t always appear so filmic. There is some loss of detail and a few digital blurrings in some background material, while close-up images are sharp and brimming with detail. Black levels don’t impress much here, as they appear to be soft and lack a ton of shadow definition.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is alive during the more supernatural elements of the film. That’s when surrounds come alive as well as some fair sub movement. However, the normal scenes feel rather flat. The score is the only thing that gives these scenes any real dynamic life at all. Sure, dialog is clear, but it never really pops at all. Perhaps this was an artistic choice in order to even more separate the atmosphere of the two halves of Melanie. If it was, it was taken too far, and thank heaven for the sweet score

Bonus Features:

The eight minute ‘Bringing The Host To Life’ features Stephenie Meyer talking about the film – it’s casting, the changes to her story, filming at the various locations. She talks a lot and is clearly an intelligent woman. It’s too bad this adaption of her book is such a failure.

Four deleted scenes are a waste of time – mostly shots of Ms Ronan doing nothing in the desert.

“Seeker PSA” is a one-minute  in-character piece designed to promote the film.

The disc also comes with a standard definition DVD along with digital copies on the iTunes and Ultraviolet services.

There is a commentary with Stephenie Meyer, Andrew Niccol and producer Nick Wechsler, but I did not listen to it.

NOT a recommended purchase, but if you’re dying to see it, a $1.50 lost at the Red Box won’t be too painful.