The Host - Not That Bad

I liked The Host.  My wife didn't.  She read the book, while I didn't.

Even though the movie feels like a low budget feature, I thought it was well written and was all around good sci-fi.  Be prepared for a major chick flick, though.

In The Host, the invasion has already happened.  Only a few humans remain unturned.  Near the beginning of the movie, Melanie is captured and is invaded by the persona called Wanderer.  Since Melanie is so strong willed, she resists and talks with Wanderer, and sometimes regains partial control of her body.

At first, Melanie's voice-over, as she "speaks" to Wanderer, is strange and borders on cheesy, but I got used to it quickly.  Though, there was one love scene later that used the voice-over technique, which didn't quite work for me. 

As you can guess with Stephanie Meyer's work, Melanie is in love with one guy, while Wanderer falls in love with another.  Too bad there's just one body!

The movie does have some pretty good moments and explores some areas I've never seen before.  Kudos to Stephanie.  The acting was decent.  The special effects were decent, though sometimes on the cheesy side.

My wife tells me the book was much better.  She says that it's almost as if the producers took the more "adult" novel and intentionally inserted the feel of the tweener Twilight series.  I can see that through the music they chose and their decisions to play up the love triangle aspect.  Perhaps one day I'll read the book and then hate the movie, but until that happens, I thought it was a good experience.  It was at least much better than the first two Twilight movies that I saw.

My recommendation: This would be a good movie to rent and watch with the honey when it comes out on DVD.  Though there are a few scenes that look cool on the big screen.