by Jenni Kenel ’14

“The Host,” released on March 29, is based on a novel by vampire teen phenomenon, “Twilight Saga,” writer Stephenie Meyer. She has managed to pull out another captivating love triangle, star-crossed lovers novel while attempting to make it an action book. Fortunately, the movie does the book justice; Meyer has matured her similar plot line from “Twilight” and created a more believable story.

“The Host” begins with main character Melanie Stryder (Saorise Ronan) running from Seeker (Diane Kruger). Melanie is part of a small group of people who have resisted the invasion of a species of aliens that has invaded their planet in attempt to perfect human society and save the Earth.

Melanie is obviously very passionate about not wanting to give up to an alien parasite that wants to control her mind and body. She runs away from Seeker to save her brother, Jamie (Chandler Canterbury), and her boyfriend, Jared (Max Irons). Unfortunately, Melanie is caught and taken away by Seeker.

The parasite placed in Melanie’s brain, Wanderer (Saorise Ronan), attempts to retrieve Melanie’s memories of the whereabouts of the rest of the resistance. She starts to develop sympathy for Melanie as she relives all of the emotional memories Melanie has of Jared and Jamie.

Wanderer continues to give information to Seeker until one day Melanie convinces her to hide the information that she has retrieved. Wanderer continues to help Melanie to find her family and friends.

The film features excellent acting from Ronan, Kruger, Irons, Canterbury, Jake Abel and William Hurt. Ronan plays her double life well, switching back and forth from Wanda and Melanie. For example, Ronan is forced to have a Louisiana accent for half of the movie and sound like a robot for the other half, and Kruger has to act mentally insane.

Abel and Irons portray hopeless romantics in the movie; Abel loves the alien half of Ronan while Irons loves the human half. Abel has to help Ronan bring back her human half and is forced into watching Irons and Ronan kiss passionately in front of him. Irons watches Abel fall in love with the body of his girlfriend which is awkward for him as he believes he is still in love with her as well.

“The Host” did not include many minor details from the novel, but like the first “The Lord of the Rings” movies, along with many others, what is not needed for the basic plot line is cut out of the movie.

“The Host” is impressive and includes much of the book that was important and necessary for a person that had not read the book to understand the plot line easily and enjoy it. The movie, along with the novel, is both aimed towards teenage and young adult women, as is commonly Meyer’s style.