I’ve been dreading the day that I actually have to write about this dreck. Octopunk pretty much identified everything that’s wrong as well as the few bits that are right with The Host here.
What a big fat disappointment! I was so wowed by the first 20 minutes that I actually paused the movie to call JPX and scold him for badmouthing it. “Just keep watching,” he warned. This turned out to be one of the rare occasions that he was right. After being treated to a delightfully vicious monster rampage at the outset of the movie we’re then forced to familiarize ourselves with South Korea’s most uninteresting dysfunctional family. We meet Hee-bong and dim witted Park Gang-du, the father/son duo who run a snack bar. What part of We don’t care, we just want to see the monster didn’t they grasp? Other insufferable non-monster family members with a lifetime of baggage to work out include Nam-joo, the talented archer who can’t handle the pressure and Gang-du, the alcoholic responsible for losing sight of young Hyun-seo. He couldn’t be less of a monster if he tried.
For the next 60 minutes of the film, we watch the family grieve, bicker, grieve, and then bicker some more. Occasionally we do get a brief reprieve from their personal issues, but instead of focusing the camera back on the monster, they instead waste everyone’s time with a confusing sub-plot involving a non-existent government conspiracy. By the time the Host makes his kickass return, I was giving the movie the silent treatment.
And that’s all I have to say about that one.
3 comments:
You called it, dude! As with certain scenes in Shaolin Soccer, it seems Asian people sometimes can't get enough of watching other Asian people in extended emotional anguish that makes me say "is this for real?" and then "what the heck is going on?"
"This turned out to be one of the rare occasions that he was right."
Wait, what?
HA-HA Boom Boom!
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