Page 32 THE VILLADOM TIMES I & III • April 10. 2013 ‘The Host’ bogs down due to lack of originality by Dennis Seuling In “The Host,” a hybrid of sci-fi, romantic drama, and psychological thriller, aliens have taken over the Earth and its people, or at least most of them. The bodies look human, except for an eerie blue glow in the pupils of the eyes of the bodies occupied by aliens, making it easier for viewers to know who’s who or what’s what. Melanie (Saoirse Ronan) is a part of a group of stubborn folks who don’t fancy giving up their identities and surrendering their bodies, and band together in a ‘60s-style desert commune as they attempt to avoid detection. However, Melanie has undergone the transformation procedure and is trying desperately to hold onto her original identity. It’s quite a struggle and her appearance as one of “them” confuses humans and aliens alike. She looks like a human shell harboring an alien identity, yet she thinks and feels like herself. The notion of body-stealing, outer-space creatures goes back to Don Siegel’s classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” The idea of people who look like humans but really are not was likely devised for budgetary reasons. It was cheaper to have actors walk around with emotionless expressions than to construct monster special effects. Nevertheless, that film and others that have followed tapped into a creepy, even horrific concept: Loved ones and friends suddenly Saoirse Ronan and Max Irons star in ‘The Host,’ an adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s novel about aliens that inhabit the bodies of Earth’s inhabitants. become strangers in recognizable form. “The Host” applies this theme far less successfully. Writer/director Andrew Nicol features several internal dialogues between Melanie and her alter ego, Wanda. After a couple of these, they become tiresome and even sound foolish. Ronan does her best with the material and has a kind, beatific face that helps her convey inner conflict, but the character gets mired in a dopey romantic quartet: Melanie is attracted to Jared (Max Irons, while Wanda is attracted to another (Jake Abel). While all this drama is percolating, the white-clad Seeker (Diane Kruger) is on the trail of Melanie, determined to snuff her out. Seeker favors shiny sports cars and commands lots of heavy equipment to assist in the pursuit. Kruger never fully convinces as a cold-blooded hunter of humans, looking instead like she just stepped off a fashion runway. “The Host” is Stephanie Meyer’s follow-up to her phe- nomenally popular “Twilight” books and, like them, is heavy on dialogue, brooding, introspection, split devotion, and angst. This movie’s downfall is that it simply won’t move along. It wallows in syrupy, touchy-feely scenes of Melanie/Wanda trying to discover who she really is or who she wants to be. At two hours, the film is easily 20 minutes too long. The two male leads, Irons and Abel, lack even the character development of Edward and Jacob from Meyer’s “Twilight” series. They are generic, hunky love interests in place merely to provide greater inner turmoil for a woman who hardly needs it. Rated PG-13, “The Host” has some serious themes -especially guilt, loyalty, and free will -- but here they are sadly trivialized and relegated to who is going to wind up with whom before the final credits roll. The film is a combination of mediocre science fiction and gooey sentimentality that avoids originality in favor of uninspired formula.