The Host

I had no interest in Stephanie Meyers’s The Host when I first heard about it. I like SciFi, but not too often. All that alien stuff gets to be too much for me. I will admit, I have not actually read the book. I watched the movie last night. I know, I know, in most literature-loving circles, this is a cardinal sin, but what can I say? I’m a rebel. I loved the movie, and I plan to read the book when I find the time (so the review will come eventually).

The Host opens with the main character, Melanie, describing how perfect the world has become. “The world is at peace. Our world has never been more perfect. It is no longer our world.” (I’m trying to quote directly here, but forgive me if it’s not 100% word for word). I love this opening. In the first five minutes of the movie, the audience is aware of our fallen state as humans. We can’t have peace and perfection in our world. We, as a race, are incapable of it because, apart from God, we are imperfect.

As my flatmate so aptly summed it up, this story is all about love. The alien souls (that’s the best way I can describe them) that inhabit human bodies do not experience love. I interpret them as very scientific. Imagine a completely logical being that does not hate, lie, steal, or fight, and that is what they are like. They also do not love or feel many of our positive emotions. They just are. They view the humans’ loss of free will as a good thing because it is for the common good. Does this sound familiar at all? I can’t think of a dystopian story that I have read or seen a movie of that does not focus on the loss of free will in order to achieve perfection. God gave us free will, not because He knew we would be able to achieve an ideal society, but because He wanted us to choose him. Obviously, a world with no choice is terrifying, as can be seen in this film. We, as a race, have an innate love of freedom: freedom to love, work, live, and pursue our dreams. Idealists can talk about peace, hope, and love all they want, but it’s never going to happen in this life on this world. That is why “we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 3:13-14). Tangent aside, the movie comes to a close with a nice, neat happy ending, where Wanda (Wanderer, the alien soul that originally inhabits Melanie) realizes that she does not want to live in a world without love and decides to sacrifice herself so Melanie can have her body and life back. However, Melanie and her companions have come to love Wanda so much that once her soul is removed from Melanie’s body, they bide their time until a freed body does not wake up. This makes it ok for Wanda to inhabit the (conveniently young and attractive) girl’s body because she would have died without a consciousness. Together, they form a band of freedom fighters that continue the battle to free the human race from the alien infestation.

The one other character that I find worth mentioning is Melanie’s Uncle Jeb. He is the one human who does not immediately try to kill Melanie/Wanda on sight. Instead, he protects her and gently takes her under his wing. He represented a kind of God figure to me. His fatherly love is part of what coaxes Wanda into trusting (and ultimately loving) the humans. At one point, she asks him, “Why should I trust you?” to which he replies “Because I trust in you”. Maybe this is just me and the emotional soundtrack pulling on my heart strings here, but I thought this was a beautiful moment. Why should we place our trust in God? Because He loved and trusted us first. He gave everything for us, He fought for us when we were as good as dead, wallowing in our sins, covered in our own filth. How can we not love and trust him? Uncle Jeb has got to be my favorite character in this movie because he has the good sense to see beyond the hurt and pain he has suffered under the invasion, and recognizes that Wanda needs love just as desperately as any human.

I would recommend watching this movie. It has an intriguing story line, and I think that I would be able to glean more insight from it by watching it again and also from reading the book. The script was well written and there were no glaringly obvious flaws in the dialogue. I was never distracted or disappointed in the dialogue or story line. Also, the soundtrack was rather fabulous and fit well with the movie.