The Host #2 by Imogene

The Host

Directed: Andrew Niccol

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, Chandler Canterbury, Rachel Roberts, Diane Krugar

Genre: Action, Adventure, Romance

Stars: 3.8/5

Hi, so if you've read my previous encounter to the film 'The Host' (if you haven't, I'd recommend you do here) you'd know that I went to see it without subtitles and that I misunderstood quite a lot during the film. (So I thought) I went with Eleanor yesterday to see it again with subtitles, and whilst I did wonder if I’d get bored watching it twice over.. I didn't. For me, I was looking forward to finally putting them few missing jigsaw pieces into the puzzle!

I was surprised by how accurate my first review was! There were quite a few sections of the film that I missed out and some vital information which made me go "Oh." But in general, I did get the gist (This makes me a very happy girlie!).

My Subtitled Review

The parts I was confused about & now understand.

• ·         I was confused about what the Hosts (which I find out are called ‘Souls’) were doing there and what their thoughts were about the planet. I understood that they saw us humans as violent and ruining the planet and they were there to clear that up and make Earth a better place to live.
• ·         The Souls have occupied many planets.
• ·         That once the Soul was inside the body of the occupant, that the mind of the human in this case, was still alive and slowly fade as the human gives up hope – but a few live on as they’re determined to survive and come back.
• ·         That Seeker wrestled with her Human Lacey for several years. (I didn’t see this during the first time, as I didn’t hear the little things that Seeker said to herself like “I am in control” and “You think you’re better than me?”) and became more apparent with the moment when she shot another Host and started her own war
•       The ‘Stars’ in the cave were actually called Glow Worms.
• ·         The section in the caves where Uncle Jeb was talking to Wanderer and asked if he could call her ‘Wanda’ to which she agrees. Also how he found the caves and that it was in fact an old volcano.
• ·         After Wanderer found out about the Doctor killing the Souls, that when she went to the hospital she claimed some pods and told the doctor that you can take the Souls out of the body by showing love.
• ·         I understood more about what happened after the ‘months later’ when, Wanda, Ian, Jared and Melanie were driving in the car and then bumped into what they thought were Hosts, but it was a bunch of Humans and a Host that had switched sides to be with the Humans. (This was good and glad made sense!)

I think in all honesty that the reason I probably understood the film quite a lot at the first time is probably is because the story line isn't a massively developed nor ‘deep’, so it makes it a fairly easy film to follow. I mean I’d watch it again – maybe not for a long time as I feel like I’m going insane watching it so close together. (haha!)

I still only gave the film a 3.8 rating simply because I didn’t learn that much that was new, the little details, apart from the brother thing and Seeker didn’t make the whole film a “WOW”. Maybe I just expected so much more from the film after seeing Twilight? I just wish I got that feeling that everything makes so much sense and I didn’t.. I cant say it’s now on my favourite films ever list.

The Host - A Non-Subtitled Review by Imogene

 The Host

Directed: Andrew Niccol

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, Chandler Canterbury, Rachel Roberts, Diane Krugar

Genre: Action, Adventure, Romance

Stars: 2.5/5

 (Possible Spoilers)

My Non-Subtitled Version

My sister contacted me and said she wanted to go and see ‘The Host’. I did, but this version was going to be non-subtitled, and I was dubious of whether to actually go, but she offered to pay, so it swayed my thoughts. Now I know I vowed pretty much to never go to another non-subtitled film, but I knew in a few weeks time I would be going to see it again with subtitled. So in the end I decided I would do a 2-part movie review, one with and one without, and as an experiment, how much I understood with and without. So here goes..

I tried to read this story soon after the Twilight saga, and I found it incredibly difficult to follow, so soon I left it, even though it was written by the same author as Twilight. I imagined it would just as easy reading, but struggled to get into the plot – It felt like it took forever to get no-where! So it wasn’t until I saw the Trailer for the film that I took an interest in it again and possibly if I went back to the book now I may enjoy it more so.

Visually I found the film really interesting, (especially the eyes!) The film was one of them films where if you didn’t hear the speaking, then you’d miss out on the important stuff like how they explain how the planet now works and what the hosts’ reason for being about, but I missed all of this and I found it frustrating. I think I would’ve coped better if there wasn’t so much background music whilst they explain things. For a Deaf person, this film really wasn’t the best, even at the best times! There were a lot of scenes in the dark and underground which caused lots of shadows that covered people’s faces as they spoke, and there were echo’s as they walked around the cave. So it wasn’t filmed for the Deaf in mind, I have to say!

But even I found in the daylight, the camera didn’t focus on any of the faces for very long. This was really annoying, especially when there was one person standing in front of the other speaking and they were in focus on the person in front, so it wasn’t easy to lipread!

However, I did learn some things, and I did understand the voice of Melanie inside wanderer, which I thought was surprising, but I don’t know if that was due to volume?

I have to say I found the storyline very interesting even though I probably missed a lot of the facts, but it was a film I could get the gist, just by looking at it and by the way they acted and look – And I relied on this loads!

So this is what I thought the plot was about:

There was this girl called Melanie who had a brother called Jamie who were humans hiding away from the hosts with this group. The hosts were about peace and honesty, and no host could lie about what they were doing, or anything, they trusted with everything. One night the group go to this building where the Hosts are trying to find them, to turn them into one of themselves. Melanie left her brother and promised she’d come back, only to get chased by the Hosts and later in the film we find out that the group kill themselves rather than be turned into a Host. (To stop the Hosts extracting their thoughts and memories on finding the other humans!) She jumped out of a storey window, only to survive the fall and they turn her into a Host.
She then wakes up, then walks to the bathroom and you hear Melanie screaming and shouting from Wanderer’s head, and that Wanderer can talk back to her. (This makes things interesting!) They have a very complicated relationship between each other in the beginning, as they clashed to control the body and mind. There is a lot of flashbacks if Melanie’s memories of her and her boyfriend Jared (I think this was his name?) Wanderer was interrogated by another Host for Melanie’s thoughts on where the other humans she was with are. (I later learned in the film that she tricked Wanderer, by showing her not the true version of the places, to save herself and the others) Melanie manages to get Wanderer on side to try and find her brother and do her promise of going back to him. They manage to escape and get a car to go back to the group, she tricked her multiple times to cover the tracks of where she was going. They crashed the car and she had to walk through the desert to get there, she collapses and her ‘Uncle’ finds her and gives her water, but they don’t believe it’s her as she is in a Host body now. (They knew she was a Host as she had a ring of blue in her eyes)

There was a large part of the film where they weren’t sure whether Melanie was still inside Wanderer, but they start to believe to think that she is, and slowly they begin to trust her. Not after several attempts from a few people to try and kill her. This part of the film was a good way to get to know both, Melanie and Wanderer. We learnt that they both have a very caring side, and are both genuine souls – however Melanie was stronger willed! It was strange for them both to be leading this life together, yet separately. They become friends. There becomes a love triangle (Stephenie Meyers likes her love triangles, doesn’t she?!) but this is where I get confused as to who is exactly in the love triangle. As I thought Wanderer falls for her protector, but I’ve read that it’s Jared – So this is something I want to work out when I watch it subtitled!

Wanderer starts understanding the way of the human race and finds sympathy for Melanie’s group. She helps protect them from the Hosts, and makes a bond with them.

Wanderer finds that they have done experiments on extracting the soul of the Host out of the human bodies and she finds some dead – this leads to her being scared for her own life as they promised they wouldn’t hurt her. She makes a decision that Melanie needs to have her life back, so they do the operation on her (she expects to die) only for her to wake up in another body, of another who is dead.

The film was really emotional at times, although when my sister was red faced and crying, I wasn’t – so this definitely makes me realised that I missed out on the sad stuff! So I can’t wait to see it properly with subtitles and be able to understand it fully.

Please don’t take my wording on the plot as I’m probably very wrong in a lot of areas but it’s a deaf girl’s view on the film – and I hope it shows you exactly how difficult it is to miss out on vital parts to the storyline.

I did enjoy watching the film, but there’s only so much enjoyment you can get out of not understanding the film – It probably would’ve been much more successful if I had read the book then I’d know what was happening..

I give this film 2.5/5 stars as I couldn’t follow the storyline very well and also the voices wasn’t clear nor in focus – I understand that normal hearing people wouldn’t have a problem with this, and it appears there wasn’t, but for me it made the viewing not a very good experience. But, it had a decent story line and some decent eye candy, so it had some good points ;)

El's Review: The Hobbit - The Unexpected Journey

Title: The Hobbit – The Unexpected Journey

Directed: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Sylvester McCoy

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Stars: 5/5

It begins with a thrilling backstory of a historical dwarf-city that is invaded by a dragon obsessed with gold. Enter Bilbo Baggins, or as we know better know him; Martin Freeman.

Everytime I see Martin Freeman I always think of him from ‘The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy’, an image I cannot shake from my head of a man in his 30s wearing a dressing gown. He’s a great actor don’t get me wrong but I always find it hard to follow actors in different roles. To his credit, The Hobbit probably wouldn’t have worked without him.

If, like me, you are an avid LOTRO fan you will recognise some of the sights immediately, such as Rivendell, Moria, the stone giants, the orcs, the wargs etc etc. Many of the scenes were shot in the beautiful views of New Zealand which acted as the perfect backdrop for the film giving justice to the book itself. The combined sights and sounds (obvious dramatic music and upbeat catchy verses for the odd ‘just running around’ scenes) were set beautifully and have not degraded The Lord of the Rings in any way and made me want to revisit LOTR to experience some of that magic once again (Will be watching the trio within the next week or so!). The CGI was done extremely professionally that I did not notice all the areas that must have been done. The stone giants must have been largely CGI and the detail was astounding.

 Gandalf has always been a favourite characters of mine and in The Hobbit you get the chance to see him perhaps not so confidence and self-assured as he has been in LOTR which was brilliant to see, nothing better than finding the backstory of a character. Other familiar faces such as Elrond, Galadriel, Saruman and Gollum return and provide a constant and much needed link between The Hobbit and LOTR.

The scenes between Gollum and ‘Bagginses’ were beautiful to watch with the constant riddle torment and the obviously personal torment for Gollum/Smeargul ending in the clever ‘What have I got in my pocket’ scenario. We finally got to see why exactly Bilbo had the ring in the first place (setting the scene for the LOTR trio) and that he does know a little about the power of the ring. Although Bilbo plays a character that does not know much about much, this adventure is the making of him and quite predictably eventually shines, saving one of the vital characters and becoming a valuable member of the team.

The whole film was much more upbeat and light compared to the heavy action-filled LOTR. I have always loved LOTR and did enjoy The Hobbit just as much, if not more. The fascination of the ordinary Bilbo Baggins (yes, just plain ordinary) with attachment issues to his mother’s plates and determination not to change. Bilbo is set to embark on a life-changing adventure with a gentle shove from a friendly voice. The storyline provides us with a life lesson; new adventures and experiences are all around but they have to be embraced.

Admittedly a little disappointment and dread filled my heart when Bilbo spoke his last words ‘I think we are over the worst now’. Of course not, it’s a three parter.

Immy's Review: The Hobbit - The Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit – The Unexpected Journey

Directed: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Sylvester McCoy

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Stars: 4.8/5

I begin with saying, that The Hobbit is a film for any fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story is about a young Bilbo Baggins and his adventure with Dwarves to reclaim their homeland, Erebor.

Now I have never read the book, so unlike my husband I don’t know every fact there has ever been known to man about the story. Saying that, it seems that may be a blessing as many people I know have said it’s incredibly hard to follow. (However, I may give it a go, one day.)

Before writing my review, I looked around on the Internet at various other writers, everyone has an opinion - many very positive, but also a few being disappointed over the depth of the plot. 

After watching the Trailer, I did wonder if it’d be worth a watch as it did look pretty identical to The Lord of the Rings but, I am a big fan of The Lord of the Rings films; so after been given the chance to go to the cinema (with subtitles) it was all rather exciting. I felt as a deaf person, if I hadn’t viewed the film with subtitles I would never had understood the tale as well as I did. For a book that is supposedly difficult to follow, I found it surprisingly easy – this may have something to do with the rating and the clever breaking down of the intricate tale by directors and script writers, however I did find this film really heavy at times, (It definitely isn’t your film if you loose concentration easily or easily bored) as there were lots of information that you learnt that connected you back to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Which was fantastic – it made the whole story that much easier to relate and understand. I found the whole part of the Old Bilbo Baggins wasn’t easy to comprehend in the trilogy, as we didn’t know his involvement fully (unless you've read The Hobbit previously), so he simply came across as a grumpy old man who was infatuated with the ring. So going back to the start where Bilbo was kind and inspirational, made a lasting impression. It finally started making sense how you imagined he felt and why he grew into what became an obsessed character. It also became clear as to why the Elves and Dwarves didn’t get on, and the dark history between them.

There were times where there was lots of humour. (Yes, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, as you’d imagine.) The humour did come across in the first scenes, as young Bilbo was wandering around his house, reading maps, books, oh and not forgetting the constant smoking of his pipe! Also the scene's showing Gandalf's and Bilbo's relationship were worthy of a few chuckles. It became entertaining more-so when the Dwarves entered Bilbo’s home. There were lots of scenes that were very fairy-tale – the beautiful hills, mountains, the relaxed way of life in The Shire, and Rivendell. (But we see more of this in the Fellowship of the Ring.) However it did become very flippant in parts where it was light-hearted that suddenly turned sinister, like in the first scenes with the Dwarves, they were, happily singing, sitting around a large wooden table, eating and uproarious laughing. It gave the whole happy view of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves – yet it became very dark with deep singing as they are spread out in front of the fire. It was very eye and mind boggling saying the least.

Now, I have to say the thing that really stuck out to me was the graphics. They were amazing. I have seen so many films in my time but these were so bang up to date, that the creatures look so life like; you’d think they were real! I mean we’ve all been to a film where you can obviously see it’s been green screened and it’s totally out of tune with the background – but here, it was perfect. (Yes, I admit in several screen shots I was trying to pick out the CGI mishaps – but failed.) 

The thing I always find really fascinating about The Lord of the Rings films is how the buildings are all model built that are just upscale, I mean you don’t ever realise how good our technology is for our films today compared to 5 years ago, until you watch something like this. The make up and costume again is breathtaking as you know it’s all been done over years to such a high quality! I never know how they begin to start on a project that massive. It shows that with long and strategic planning, it really does make it all worthwhile.

The only thing that stopped me giving the film that 0.2 off the fifth star, was the length of the film – it felt like it went on forever (It really wasn't helped by the length of advert time there was!) and what with there being 2 other films to come, It does make you think if it’ll be over stretched, especially with The Hobbit being a reasonably average thickness book. But we’ll have to wait to watch the next one to see if that is the case.

In all, this film really impressed me after watching the Trailer and I’m pleased that it did and to be honest, I’m already looking forward to the second part, and the third.

It’s definitely an enjoyable and remarkable film to start 2013 off with – a truly memorable film!