Curiously, the Host trailer premiering today (Valentine’s Day, at the time of writing this) places less emphasis on the love story aspects. Instead, the new promo focuses on the futuristic war between humanity and invading parasitic aliens – and how our protagonist, Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) becomes an important piece in the metaphorical chess game.
The Host begs comparison to titles such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the book/TV series Animorphs, but stands apart because it takes place after the aliens (which insert themselves into humans’ brains) have all but taken complete control of Earth. Similar to writer/director Andrew Niccol’s last film, In Time, the story is about how love between two people – Melanie and her boyfriend Jared Howe (Max Irons) – inspires them to aid the dwindling human resistance, even after Melanie is captured and infected with an alien that sympathizes with her ‘host.’
One thing the new Host trailer (and every other preview so far) neglect to mention is the plot also involves a love triangle, though not quite in the vein of Twilight orThe Hunger Games. Here, the twist is a young man named Ian (Jake Abel) falls in love with Melanie’s alien “Soul”, named Wanderer, even as the human rebellion leader and Melanie’s uncle (William Hurt) realizes his niece is being used by an alien called The Seeker (Diane Kruger) to locate and enslave the last free humans.
