10 Terrible Movies That Wasted A Truly Brilliant Concept
3. The Host
The Concept: The Host it set in the distant future; planet Earth has been invaded by a race of aliens called "Souls", parasitic creatures who enter the body of a human host and take control.
The Souls are peaceful beings, and they look after the planet. There is no violence, and the environment is treated with respect. However, this is still an invasion - and there are plenty of humans fighting back.
Why The Movie Failed: From the opening few moments, The Host gives off the impression that it was scripted by ten different people, neither of whom bothered to check exactly what the person before them wrote.
The film opens with a voiceover that states "there is no violence", but literally two minutes later, our protagonist violently jabs a couple of Souls in the face and almost falls to her death. Violence is aplenty, and the film immediately contradicts its opening statement.
The Host also masks the genuinely interesting idea of a 'peaceful invasion' under a cliched, groan-inducing young-adult love story and all the out-of-place action beats you'd expect from a blockbuster that should've really been a low-budget drama.
In trying to appeal to a wider audience, the film has shot itself in the foot; it needs action and violence to make it more entertaining for the average film-goer, but the film starts off by saying violence is nonexistent. What exactly does The Host want to be?
Apparently, nobody involved with the production was sure. You'll lose confidence in the film after about ten minutes, and by that point, any excitement you had about the concept will have been extinguished.