Kids in London - “The Host” at the cinema

Compared to all the hype for the Twilight vampire-werewolf trilogy (American author Stephanie Meyer was also the writer of this story), this film almost slipped by under the radar. I took my teenage daughter along yesterday afternoon to see it as I thought it would be an interesting diversion during the Easter holidays.

I had read the book and enjoyed the “science fiction with a teen romantic angle” story. In a nutshell, the story concerns an earth which has been taken over by aliens (like small sparkly woodlice with tentacles) who use humans as a host. There are few humans remaining who try to live without detection, but are hunted by Seekers – who drive very shiny cars and helicopters. One of the humans is caught and becomes host to an alien called Wanderer but returns to the human hide out inside a mountain cave complex.

It’s a long film – nearly two hours. But the film is pretty faithful to the book – which I had enjoyed. My daughter seemed impressed with the story and asked quite a few questions about the details of the plot and characters on the way home.

There’s little violence and no sex. There’s a car chase or two. At 12A it’s entirely suitable for youngsters, although I suspect that they’d need to be at least nine or ten to “get” the story. So whilst it might not have the polished performances of the Bella-Edward-Jacob films (although there is a similar girl and two boy love triangle), nor the multi-million pound production budget and special effects, it is an interesting story that makes them think.