The Host

The HostFor those out there who need their movies defined as "this meets that" I would say the host is Godzilla meets Little Miss Sunshine. Wait, don't go. It actually works.The plot is a chemical dump (based on a true story) leads to the creation of a monster that lives in a river (not true). The monster eats people, but also collects others so it can eat them later without having to hunt again. One of the people it steals away is a small girl. Her family is a bit messed up; slacker dad, drunk uncle, aunt who is an archer with issues and one crazy loving grandpa. They decide to go after the monster to avenge her.Like Little Miss Sunshine and other character driven movies, the plot is explained early on and the fun is really watching how these people react. It is certainly entertaining in this case. And what's great is that the people don't always rise to the occasion. Tfhe son still screws up a lot. The grandfather still rambles. These people still doubt themselves.The movie itself is a bit frenetic. There are parts that are directed like a horror movie, parts that are flat out slapstick and parts that are deeply disturbing political commentary. It's from South Korea so the drunk son (who can't get a job after college) is a bit bitter about being a failure after protesting for democracy thought his youth. Also, as many South Korean movies tend to do, there's a strong focus on high contrast imagery and playing with black shadows. Shot by shot this movie is beautiful. The shadows aren't used to hide the monster, but to hide people from people. On the whole this feels like a character movie with horror laid over it like screen. Horror is never the foundation for any of the development.As special effects go the monster is gorgeously done while some of the other effects leave a bit to be desired (like some of the rendered fire). I do think that the movie a) earns enough trust and b) is funny enough on its own that when you get to some of the weaker special effects shots they can be forgiven or simply laughed at without ruining the film as a whole.I liked it. At the end I was left a little "well, that was... different" but I enjoyed the work as a whole. It was ambitious and for the most part achieved what it set out to do. The monster is cool, there are a few scare moments that got my friend and definitely some scenes with the army that disgusted me. The main thing is the characters develop like real people in a ridiculous world which leads to all sorts of problems for them. While they don't all become well adjusted it's nice to see them adjust to each other as they are forced together in the hunt.Rating: +3.5