The Host

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Summary:
Old formaldahyde bottles are emptied into a drain and released into the Han river, creating a mutated monster that wreaks havoc on the shore and resides in the sewers. Beloved family member, young Hyun Seo is kidnapped, and her family fights desperately to bring her home.

Review:
I'm all game for a great monster movie. The Host is a fairly fun time. From the director of Memories of Murder (which I thought I reviewed, but I guess not) comes a movie that's a big change of tone and direction than his first film.
Since this is a monster movie, the most important element to the effects department lies in the monster itself. It's completely CGI created, and although it's not perfect, the Oprhanage effects company (out of San Francisco) did a decent enough job to keep my suspension of disbelief suspended enough to go along for the monster mayhem ride. He's awesome to behold when it comes to creature design, and even more impressive is that he's first introduced during the day. The first attack happens in broad daylight. It's a lot tougher to pull out a realistic CGI effect during the day! I loved the first shot of the creature. I thought it was a swinging bag of netted junk hanging off the bridge but then he unfolds and plops into the river, showing me how wrong was I! Within a few minutes, he's trampling along the shoreline, tossing people left and right and rampaging his way into small cabins filled with helpless victims. The violence isn't extreme, but there's plenty of tight direction during the action scenes, as well as some tasty moments of gooey goodness here and there.
The entire Park family works well together. I could feel their connection to one another as if they were real people, and even though they're flawed, they stuck together when they had to, and helped each other during the most desperate of times. Hyun Seo is a cutie, and on top of that, she did a fantastic job at such a young age. American studios really should start looking for TALENTED child actors, not Dakota Fanning! Song Kang Ho was solid as Gang Do, the slow whitted but well intentioned father of Hyun Seo. Even though he doesn't make the best choices, his heart is in the right place, and you can't help but root for him. Same goes to the rest of the Park family. If I was taken away by a man eating monster, I'd hope that my family would be half as determined to get me back!

I do have some notable complaints to The Host. It's alright to me that America is poked and prodded and made fun of, but the incompetence of the doctors and virus control agents gets outta hand. They are a good source of comedy in some sequences, but most of the time I just wished that they'd get their fucking heads straight and stop doing stupid shit. You can get plenty of social commentary from this flick, not just with America and its need to be a world police, but also in environmental awareness. The best thing about these messages is that you can take it or leave it. I would rather just leave it and enjoy the movie on its most superficial level.

Another glaring flaw is the runtime. It's almost two hours long, and I feel that a good 15 minutes could have been cut to make it flow better. There are a few subplots that bogged it down, and a scene in which grandfather makes a speech with THE ENTIRE FAMILY SLEEPING. I get that it's supposed to be funny, but why am I listening to an old man tell a long story about his son's quirks when even the characters onscreen aren't listening? Their falling asleep makes me feel like tuning him out. Cut that out altogether, man. Speed this bitch up! More carnage, NOW!

All in all, I'd say The Host was worth seeing. Minus a few lags between exciting moments, and some unnecessaries here and there, I was pretty satisfied. The Park family's loyalty to one another, and the initial carnage and mayhem of that first attack were my favorite parts. It could have been better, but even more important is that it could have been MUCH much worse!

GRADE: B-

Reviewed: 2/25/07