# THE HOST (Blu-ray; Universal)



## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

[img]http://static.hypable.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/the-host-dvd-blu-ray-cover-art-full.jpg[/img]*Releasing/Participating Studio(s): Universal Studios
Disc/Transfer Information: Region A; 2.40:1 (Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1); 50GB 1080p High Definition Blu-ray Disc
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 125 Minutes
Tested Audio Track: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Director: Andrew Niccol
Starring Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, William Hurt, Max Irons, Rachel Roberts, Marcus Lyle Brown

PLOT ANALYSIS:*

The rear cover of _The Host_’s Blu-ray packaging exclaims, in some such similar words, _”If you loved TWILIGHT you’ll love this!”_ and indeed it rings true – as I suspected, this was geared towards that quasi-teen/twenty-something demographic currently enthralled with the possibility that werewolves, vampires and now, apparently, soul-possessing alien beings really do exist. Not only that – but they’re teenie-bopper heartthrobs that were otherwise once pinned as pictures to a young smitten girl’s wall. Some members of this demographic have gotten so into these subjects courtesy of projects like _Twilight, True Blood_ and _Grimm_ that they have gone so far as to dress up like vampires and werewolves, claiming they are actually of these species…think I’m kidding? Visit your local shopping mall complex and wander into the food court, around the time high schoolers are breaking for the day…quietly make your way to the Sbarro’s counter to order up a slice and a Coke -- or, alternatively, baked ziti and meatballs -- and casually glance around…you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Actually, what makes this all so confounding to me is the fact that behind _The Host_’s teenie-bopper-esque love story is a very interesting alien soul abduction plot; I said it before and I’ll say it again: This is something that is going to eventually happen because there’s no way we’re alone in this universe, but our visitors aren’t necessarily going to come as little humanoid stick figure beings with massive heads and huge black eyes…the invasion or visitation (whatever they’re up to) may in fact come in the form of strange, amoeba-like life that we can’t even fully comprehend or perhaps in a microscopic bacteria-like form. Consider all the quasi-microscopic and strange alien life Gene Roddenberry had the crew of the _Enterprise_ studying and coming in contact with in the original _Trek_ show…or perhaps the “invasion” suggested to be coming in projects like _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_. Remember the line Dustin Hoffman delivers when they’re looking at that piece of bacterial infection under the microscope in _Outbreak_ and he says _”Oh come on you gotta admire it, Casey…it’s one-billionth our size and it’s beating us…”_ with regard to the power this microscopic organism had? While that was in reference to a biological infection run rampant, it is possible that this is precisely what an alien presence, invasion or visitation may come as – not in gigantic ships blinged out with metallic paint as suggested by the likes of H.G. Wells…

Speaking of bling – one of the coolest aspects of Andrew Niccol’s _The Host_, based on the novel by _Twilight_ saga author Stephanie Meyer, was the fact that these “aliens” now inside human hosts drive around policing us humans in shiny, chrome-covered cars (as well as fly in the same chrome-dipped helicopters and ride on similarly-trimmed motorcycles) that look an awful lot like a Corvette from the front and Tesla from the rear. The film opens with a narration by William Hurt, who plays the “Jeb” character in the film, who explains that Earth has been taken over by alien beings that infiltrate our bodies and are “implanted” via the rear of the human neck; the creatures present themselves as balls of light with tentacle-like formations on them, ultimately controlling the “host” they’re in and ultimately completely taking over the human they’ve inhabited. However, some humans have a tendency, depending on their personality, to fight the alien conditioning and stop it from completely consuming them. Such is the case with young Melanie Stryder (played by a convincing and emotionally devoted Saoirse Ronan) who ends up being taken over by a “soul” (what the invading alien presence is referred to as) named “Wanderer” and who ends up fighting her conditioning because of her strong consciousness. All throughout the film – which I thought was a clever tactic – we hear Melanie’s “consciousness” talking to both her possessor and us, the audience, indicating she’s still trapped in there somewhere, and also making us wonder what this would feel like…that is, to have your body taken over by some unknown presence but still be able to think for yourself and consciously know what is going on (I suppose this is very much like the effects of demonic possession). As “Wanderer” is debriefed by superior “seekers” (those aliens that are chosen to seek out bodies to possess and to make it happen) including what was once a middle-aged blonde woman named Lacey but is now known simply as “The Seeker” (_National Treasure_’s Diane Kruger), Melanie’s consciousness begs the alien presence to fight the “orders” she’s being given to seek out what’s left of the human resistance who were ultimately closely connected to Melanie (William Hurt’s Jeb character and an old flame Jared Howe, played by Max Irons, plus others).

Meanwhile, this band of surviving humans – the “resistance” as it is always referred to in these quasi-futuristic thrillers – have taken up refuge in the midst of an American desert, where they spend their days and nights hiding from the human/alien hybrids always looking for new bodies to take over. In a rather odd plot detail, they also artificially farm wheat in this desert hideout beneath the ground (this must have been a big element in the book) and use running water for an electricity source and as showers. Jeb, a rusty but tough Western-esque shotgun slinging type, leads this surviving band of humans but here’s the catch – these alien beings really aren’t what the world experienced in _Independence Day_ or what it’s going to experience in the forthcoming (this weekend) _Pacific Rim_…they’re actually peaceful, benevolent life forms that travel from universe to universe taking over species of life and in the case of us humans to “better” us; in some respects, I simply can’t blame the aliens, especially when they speak of the way in which we kill each other and harm our own planet. 

Escaping from her new “quarters” assigned to her by the Seeker division, Wanderer/Melanie makes her way, with the aid of Melanie’s consciousness, towards the hot desert to find the people she left behind before her invasion, namely her boyfriend and little brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury). Some of this got a little thick and campy after awhile; that is, this alien presence being “told” what to do by Melanie’s consciousness as they make their way through the blazing hot desert sands and the host body begins dehydrating – however, upon exhaustion, Melanie’s body is discovered by Jeb and a host of wagoneer-esque survivors that at first want to do nothing more than slaughter what they think is merely an alien-infected host body, strange “glowing” eyes and all. And while Jeb immediately recognizes Melanie, they’re still not convinced this is not merely a trick or trap being sprung by the aliens even though Melanie’s consciousness continues to plead with the Wanderer alien not to let them in on what’s going on yet. Things get even more complicated when Melanie’s consciousness “sees” old flame Jared and can’t manage to tell him she’s still inside this body, alive, thinking, feeling…as well as when she sees her little brother Jamie. 

The Seekers, lead by a now vengeful – something the aliens aren’t supposed to be – Lacey begin searching for the escaped Wanderer that’s inside Melanie’s body, desperate to finally find the human resistance group and take them over once and for all. During this time, _The Host_ collapses on itself as a thick, brooding teenie-bopper love story that gets a bit too sappy for my taste to say the least; this alien presence known as Wanderer – cut down to “Wanda” for short by Hurt’s Jeb character – ends up “falling in love” (yeah, right) with one of the guys in the human survivor group, a friend of Jared’s, but this makes the entire thing a complex mess as Melanie’s consciousness objects every time the “alien presence” kisses this kid or even talks to Jared himself. This is manifested in the way of Wanderer/Melanie slapping the guys when they come near her or pushing them away; after awhile, the whole thing got way too _90210_-ish for me and the subject matter was ultimately over my head as they say. A turning point in the film comes when Wanderer/Melanie stumbles upon a room in this desert hideout in which one of the human survivors, a doctor (Scott Lawrence), has removed some alien beings from dead hosts they collected and is cutting them up or doing something horrendous to them; Wanderer, of course being affected by this because she is in fact an alien from this race, runs away horrified and begins to wonder if “she’s” doing the right thing by “helping” the human of which she shares a host body with. This notion of us harming a race physically when they really aren’t violent in any sense of the word added a sense of heart-tugging and sympathetic overtones, almost at times throwing the film into the tearjerker category; this plays out even further when , towards the end of the film, it’s time for “Wanderer” to leave Melanie’s body (after she explains to the humans they can extract these “souls” any time they want via a silver football-shaped gadget she presents to them) once she decides she doesn’t want to continue jumping from world to world and taking over beings like her race has been doing and would rather ultimately die. Interestingly enough, Melanie has developed a bond with her possessor and doesn’t want her to leave her own body either – nor does the smitten guy who has a crush on this alien presence – and while we’re lead to believe this is setting up a sad, solemn moment perhaps along the lines of the end of _E.T._, the film kind of concludes on a high note, with the doctor transferring Wanda’s (Wanderer) essence into an expired human host while Melanie gets to be herself again. In her new form, “Wanda” now looks like an average young girl, played by Emily Browning in the final few sequences of the film, and who now has joined this group of new human friends, herself sympathetic to the human cause and all for coexisting with us. Also during this time, “Doc” (Lawrence) pulls the possessing alien out of “Lacey” (Kruger) after she traces Wanderer to this desert hideout and ends up getting shot by Jeb, exposing a much-appreciative middle-aged woman who claims, through tears, that she has been fighting the conditioning of this particular “soul” for so long and explains why she was so bent on hunting down Wanderer/Melanie and stopping her. 

Four months or so later, as the screen tells us, the group of friends – including Wanda – is traveling in a truck and crossing over a bridge in some city when they’re suddenly surrounded by Seeker police vehicles. Donning sunglasses – all but Wanda – so that they’re human eyes aren’t seen, the group emerges from the vehicle and are immediately interrogated by a Seeker with a weapon who makes a comment about it “being very bright tonight” in reference to their wearing sunglasses in the evening. When the group takes the glasses off, we think this Seeker is going to haul them in or try to have them assimilated, but in a turn of events the human group learns that other humans have indeed survived, evidenced by their presence behind the Seeker, and that this particular Seeker has actually become friends with the humans…just like Wanda.

_The Host_ ends on an upbeat note and definitely kind of pulls on the heartstrings there, but all in all this is geared towards the _Twilight_ crowd and a certain specific demographic that’s much younger than I am. The concept, as I said, was very interesting in certain respects; that is, the whole notion about benevolent alien creatures taking us over but which can be “fought” by the strong-minded humans they inhabit, et al…but in the end, this wasn’t my cup of Lipton tea. As always, your mileage may vary, and I know there are a plethora of _Twilight_ fans out there…

[img]http://i2.cdnds.net/13/02/618x378/movies-the-host-still-3.jpg[/img]*VIDEO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC LOOK?*

Wow. That’s all I can say at this moment…wow. Universal has almost outdone themselves on this 2.40:1 1080p transfer; from almost beginning to end, _The Host_ is pure jaw-dropping, over-the-top eye candy, so ridiculously rich and detailed it makes a lot of the sets come off as looking fake. Faring best, of course, are the outdoor, brightly-lit shots that absolutely sparkle and shine with mind-boggling clarity and depth-of-field; when the action focuses on outdoor sequences, elements such as foliage, grass, the cement of sidewalks and desert landscapes are downright perfect, with pop-off-the-screen visuals. Likewise for the rendition of the chrome-covered vehicles the aliens drive around in; these pop with a surreal quality that almost makes you lunge for a pair of shades it’s so clean and bright – almost. 

From more subtle details such as the up-close shots of William Hurt’s beard to being able to make out nearly every single pebble that litters the desert plains Melanie/Wanda are walking in, this was a top-notch, near-reference-grade Blu-ray transfer…one I haven’t seen in such rich exhibition in a long time. If there were any nits to pick, it would be the interior shots which, when compared to the awe-inspiring exterior daytime sequences, come off looking a bit flat and uninvolving. 













[img]http://img.rlsbb.com/images/2013/06/26/host7.jpg[/img]*AUDIO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC SOUND?*

Meh; the DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack accompanying _The Host_ on Blu-ray Disc didn’t wow me like the video did. Much of this is dialogue-driven (surprisingly) and in that sense it comes across with enough clarity to exhibit immersiveness, but overall there’s a sheer lack of kinetic energy to this track with little use of surrounds, lean LFE applications and an overtly gentle sonic approach difficult to describe. Indeed, there were quasi-impressive moments of rear channel activity – for example, helicopter flyovers and speeding traffic were appropriately, if not aggressively, placed in the soundscape – but I also noted some “missed” opportunities here by Universal’s engineers (or the filmmakers’ sound designers) such as gunfire and bullets that didn’t make their way to the rear or action setpieces that didn’t involve much surround movement. 

In the end, let’s just say the audio wasn’t as impressive as the video. 












*FINAL THOUGHTS:*

Worth a rental, and if you’re a fan of the _Twilight_ saga, perhaps a purchase; for us, it was a one-time-only deal. Let me know what you thought if and when you see this!

I’ll have my thoughts on _Dead Man Down_ on Blu-ray up at some point tomorrow; as always, thank you for reading friends!


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## B- one (Jan 13, 2013)

I may have to hide this title from my wife. She already has all the Twilight movies and books. If she wants this one I will suggest Human Centipede on Netflix for revenge. And I'm not sure I want to watch that.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

LOL...indeed, B....if she's a _Twilight_ nut, she's gonna be more than likely into this...

It wasn't "bad" per se, but I think you need to be "of" the _"Twilight"_ esque fold this caters to in order to ultimately "get it"...

However, from a VIDEO QUALITY standpoint, this transfer was beyond top-notch in my opinion; it was everything a high definition transfer should be. Check it out -- if you dare -- just to see what your display is truly capable of...


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

Yes Osage, definitely for the Twilighters as I call them. I had enough of twilight after the first 40 minutes of each installment and I did make it through this one but in 2 sittings 1 hour each. I could care less if a video and audio were done on super 8mm, if the content is good (which this one isn't) I will watch it. This one definitely a thumbs down for me. I believe you are correct about aliens and I think the invasion has already started in Hollywood.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Hey Eric, thanks for your input in the thread...



ericzim said:


> Yes Osage, definitely for the Twilighters as I call them. I had enough of twilight after the first 40 minutes of each installment and I did make it through this one but in 2 sittings 1 hour each.


Indeed; these weren't for my particular demographic, either...:sarcastic:



> I could care less if a video and audio were done on super 8mm, if the content is good (which this one isn't) I will watch it.


Are you referring to _Twilight_ here with regard to the "content" or _The Host?_ As I said to B above, this title is worth checking out for the video transfer alone -- it's that good and semi-flawless. The content within _The Host_ wasn't that bad, actually; it just got a bit too teenie-bopper-love-story-esque for my tastes towards the second half. Have you seen it yet?



> This one definitely a thumbs down for me. I believe you are correct about aliens and I think the invasion has already started in Hollywood.


Whoops -- I believe you answered my question above right here...unless you were just going by the plot analysis in the review...

I know what you mean about the alien invasion in the midst of Tinseltown...:rofl2:


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

Osage_Winter said:


> Hey Eric, thanks for your input in the thread...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I watched The Host all the way through. You are right about the video quality, it is superb in Hi Def. The content wasn't. Same with Twilight for me and I am not a difficult person to please in most cases, I can sit through Thunderbirds Are Go and Team America: World Police with no problem. The Host and Twilight series probably would have been better using puppets.:rofl2:


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Wow...indeed, you really didn't seem to enjoy it...

While you and I are normally on the exact same page, in this instance I didn't think the material was _too_ horrendously unwatchable; definitely not a buy though.

Have you seen _Dead Man Down_ yet?


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

Osage_Winter said:


> Have you seen _Dead Man Down_ yet?


Yes I have and I thought that Dead Man Down was quite good so I bought it. It had everything I liked in a movie, mystery and suspense with some good action thrown into the mix. I don't want to give to much away as I wait for your review.


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## B- one (Jan 13, 2013)

ericzim said:


> The Host and Twilight series probably would have been better using puppets.:rofl2:


I agree on Twilight and will skip the Host. Puppets make everything better.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Thanks guys...


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