Outside of The Twilight Saga, The Host is Stephanie Meyer's biggest novel and since the success of her supernatural series, her sci-fi novel has been adapted. There is a stronger cast and director for The Host, than the Twilight Saga, but how does it fare on its own terms? In the near future, Earth has been conquered by a parasitic alien race known as The Souls, who implant themselves into human bodies. Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) is a member of the human resistance who gets captured when she tries to protect her younger brother, Jamie (Chandler Canterbury). Melanie gets implanted with a Soul, called Wanderer, with the aliens planning to use Melanie's memories in order to find the human resistance. As Wanderer explores Melanie's memories, she finds out about Melanie's lover, Jared (Max Irons) and the pair plan an escape to the desert to find the resistance camp. Within the camp, Wanderer falls for another human, Ian (Jake Abel),causing problems for all of them.

Let's get the comparisons with Twilight out the way; yes there is a is love triangle (or should that be a love square?),The Host has a much better lead actress with Ronan then Kirsten Stewart and has a stronger supporting cast, with the likes of William Hurt and Diane Kruger. Andrew Niccol also gives the film more creditability behind the camera, acting as both the writer and director. The Host has interesting ideas that had many potential avenues to explore: but unfortunately it focuses more on the love story instead of all of the other aspects that could have lead to a much more meaningful film.

Ronan does rise above the material and gives very strong performance, as you would expect from her. This is even more remarkable that she has to argue and talk with herself, like Homer Simpson arguing with his own brain. Whilst there was the potential for themes of locked in syndrome as Melanie is trapped inside her own head, fighting to control her own body or going through a more literal, internal conflict. But it turns really silly when she argues with herself over two men, as opposed of having a much more difficult time of having a stronger conflict within her character. Ronan gets battered and beaten throughout the film as she gets hit, verbally abused and discriminated against and yet, still persevere through everything she's up against.

Whilst Ronan does a good job, the two men she is meant to be conflicted about are blank stales. Neither actor has much of a personality or character and they are very indistinguishable from each other. Ronan has no choice but to carry the film, considering that there was nothing going for the main love interests. At least Hurt and Kruger looked like they were having fun with their roles and were highly professional with their performances.

The idea of some sort of insider for an oppressive regime having an awakening, usually because a love interest and ends up turning against their own side has been used before. We have seen it in novels like Nineteen-Eighty Four, Fahrenheit 451 and We and films such as Metropolis and THX-1138. The Host does twist this age old idea in sci-fi, even if the execution was lacking.

The Host had a really strong premise with opportunities to explore multiple themes. They could have been themes about identity, the battle within the mind, split personalities, trust and how humans would survive after this invasion. But like Twilight, the film only touches on these concepts and puts all of its focus in the wrong places.

Much like Twilight, The Host has been criticised for its dialogue and being unintentionally funny. It is true that the film has some bad dialogue, but with some of the moments that were comical that had be intentional, with some of its moments of cultural clash and the bickering between Wanderer and Melanie. There are also some dark moments and there were really refreshing when they do come around.

Niccol is known for being an excellent writer director, making Gattaca and Lord of War and was nominated for an Academy Awards for his screenplay for The Truman Show. The Host is his first adaptation and it felt very rigidly close to the source material. What it results to is a bland experience that has episodic nature, having mini-plots with some developments, instead of a larger overarching story. Looks wise, the film is pretty flat and dull, using nothing but silver chrome for the alien technology, concrete and glass for the buildings and the humans are based in an empty desert environment. The cinematography and the special effects were solid but, Niccol was coasting and he is much more capable then this.

Currently on Rotten Tomatoes, The Host has an 12% rating and seemingly on course to be considered one of the worst films of 2013. Whilst it is hard to argue that The Host is a good movie, it is certainly not terrible: its crime is merely being mediocre, dull and forgettable.

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The current score on IMDb is too low. This is a fairly good film. It's worth about a 7.5. To see the true IMDb score, click the link for the number of users and look at the bell graph. Eliminate the 1s and 10s, and you'll see that what you're left with is a solid 7.

Saoirse Ronan was perfectly cast for this role as the sensitive, conflicted alien slowly gaining the trust of the human survivor group. Diane Kruger and William Hurt were also good. (Once again, I'm struck how so many Hollywood movies lately have non-American actors playing Americans. What's that all about?)

"The Host" is part of a new genre I would call "sci fi for chicks". If it bothers you to see a "soft" science-fiction film with love-sick young people, noble suicides, impossibly handsome young men, aliens with emotions, etc., don't go see this one. It's the old male v. female dilemma: Should we kill the hated aliens or coax them out and make friends with them?

There was not enough exposition at the start about the horrors of the alien invasion. The writers and producers seem to have assumed that moviegoers would understand why the characters want to "remain human" and why they would refer to a human-hosted alien as "it". Perhaps it was better explained in the book.

The device of Melinda's consciousness remaining fully alert, and Wanda and Melinda actually talking to each other for our benefit, might put some moviegoers off. (I'm not sure. I haven't read the other reviews.) However, once I suspended my disbelief, I was able to go with the flow.

They threw the male viewers a bone: Kruger and Ronan, to start. there were a few car and motorcycle chases (involving futuristic-looking chrome vehicles),and shoot outs. Hey, this is a Hollywood movie, after all.

The theme of humans hosting aliens is not original, but they took the concept in a different direction. The movie is slick and well made, but there were a few clichés and many, many aspects of the story that were glossed over, left unexplained or just not realistic. The survivors here were mostly young Hollywood pretty boys, not a ragged group of tough survivors (like on "Walking Dead", for example.)

Still, I appreciated some of the details of the "good alien" theme, like a society of honest and trustworthy aliens that doesn't need cash to function, or where they will simply give you their car if you need it, or where everyone drives at the speed limit. (God forbid we should have a society like that! Kill them!)

And I liked the part where the other seekers looked at the evil seeker (played by Kruger) and pointed out that she was getting a little too obsessed. After all the aliens saw themselves as the good guys. There are many species that coexist in symbiosis. It's interesting to think that maybe it would do our species good. This is actually a very old theme. There's not much difference between "her body has been taken over by an alien" and "she is filled with the Holy Spirit", or even "she is possessed by a demon".

You would think The Host would had been a Bodysnatchers film. Instead it is a Young Adult alien invasion romance. It is a slog to watch as it is too long and sloppy.

Earth has been taken over by a parasitic alien race who have entered the bodies of human beings and taken over their personalities. These people have shiny eyes and they have managed to eradicate violence, war and healed the environment.

Only a few real humans survive as rebel groups. One of them Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) is captured by a 'Seeker' (Diane Kruger) and becomes the host for an alien called Wanderer (Wanda.) However Melanie and Wanda bicker over the control of the host body. When the Seeker wants to move Wanda to another host, they escape to a rebel area where Melanie gravistates towards her boyfriend as Wanda fancies another boy.

Saoirse Ronan goes through the film talking to herself. A concept that becomes irritating. The rest of the characters are flat and have little to so. Even William Hurt is wasted as Uncle Jeb. The film has little plot, no tension. It angles to be a syruppy romance but becomes a drab film instead.