Oh, do cheer up if you're lamenting the end of the Twilight saga.
The Host is another romantic fantasy based on a young adult novel by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, this time of the sci-fi kind.
Much like its forerunner, The Host features a complicated love triangle, cheesy dialogue and occasional action thrills. Twihards are obviously going to love this, but while there are story similarities, the genre switch means The Host at least looks like a different film.
New Zealand-born director-writer Andrew Niccol does a good job of explaining the story's tricky premise. That is, Earth has been taken over by aliens known as Souls, who take over humans' bodies. We meet our heroine Melanie (Ronan) in the process of being captured by a "Seeker" (Kruger) - the aliens hunting down the last resisting humans. A Soul, called Wanderer, is implanted in Melanie but Melanie refuses to give up her body entirely and remains as a voice inside Wanderer's head.
This means Saoirse Ronan has many scenes reacting and responding to her inner Melanie, which we hear as an ethereal voice-over. While awkward at first, Ronan pulls off the inner conflict, which comes to a head when Wanderer falls for one boy, Ian (Jake Abel), and Melanie for another, Jared (Max Irons).
