Films: The Host and the Alien
Plot Summary
The Host is an American film directly aligned to science, fiction, romance, and thriller genres. It was developed from the novel authored under the same title by Stephen Meyer. It was directed by Andrew Niccol. The plot in the film attempts to describe various events after aliens known as Souls take over the human race. Souls are able to travel across long distances integrating themselves into human beings who host them. Thus, the film focuses on human beings who host the alien Souls facilitating the creatures to be dominant species. A Soul has the ability to replace the consciousness of a human being hosting them as they can access the memories. For a Soul to be identified in a hosting human body, the public would recognize a blue ring forming on the eyes. The film attempts to showcase the difference between evil and good deeds and the outcomes. The Host film was released in March 2013.
Conversely, The Alien was a film developed in 1979 under the science fiction and horror genres. It was filmed in a spaceship known as Nostromo returning to planet earth with mineral ore and crew members. However, it is stalked by extraterrestrial or alien creatures with powers to kill the crew. Just like The Host, the alien creatures are able to integrate into humans through the faces. More so, they are able to control the human’s memories rendering them unconscious through a corrosive acid. However, this film does not include comedic scenes. Instead, most of the scenes are aligned to the horror genre.
Thesis Statement
The main character in The Host film is known as Melanie Stryder. After she is captured, she is forced to host an alien creature known as Wanderer. This creature is tasked by the Seeker to access Melanie’s memories in attempts to discover a pocket with non-assimilated humans. However, the host is too powerful as the alien creature is challenged in controlling her memories. More so, both Melanie and Wanderer are able to communicate internally, thus forming a close relationship between a human being and an alien creature. These two scenes in the movie further prove that evil cannot exceed goodness, morals, values, and ethic.
There are several actors playing equally important roles in The Alien film. This technique in budding characters in a film is aimed at developing a plot with teachings, values, and principles a community, country or large groups of persons can relate with. A community thrives due to cooperation and understanding. In the film, the crewmembers were able to discover the alien creatures from cooperation. The crewmembers were divided in order to investigate transmissions, decipher mysterious signals, access damages on the spacecraft, and repair them.
Both films develop unique relationships among the characters. In The Host film, a unique relationship between Melanie and Wanderer is developed. This prompts the Seeker to find a way of being integrated with Melanie. Seeker’s efforts are aimed at acquiring the information without relying on Wanderer. Thus, Seeker plays a villains role aimed at destroying an alien and a human being. However, this decision further drift the alien creatures apart prompting Wanderer to seek help from Melanie in order to escape. In The Alien film, a unique relationship between the crewmembers is developed. The two films, therefore, utilize scenes developing unique relationships in order to assert that cooperation, understanding, and obeying are vital factors in maintaining associations.
Within The Host film, both Melanie and Wanderer maintain a close, intimate, and trusting relationship. As a result, Melanie introduces Wanderer to her brother Jamie and boyfriend Jared. They both accompany Melanie and Wanderer to the desert in order to visit Jeb her uncle. After the alien creature Wanderer escapes to the desert through her host, Melanie’s uncle Jeb assists her to hide. Consequently, she is able to visit the pocket of humans. Wanderer recognizes several humans, including Melanie’s brother Jamie and boyfriend Jared. Initially, Wanderer’s presence at the humans pocket is marred with restrictions, conflicts, and hostility. However, Melanie’s uncle Jeb continues to show support to her presence in the humans pocket at the desert.
However, the relationship between the alien creatures and the spacecraft crewmembers is described as horrific and hostile in The Alien film. This can be attributed to the antagonistic and aggressive nature among the alien creatures determined to be integrated into human beings through forceful means. This relationship can be compared to the association between Wanderer and Seeker in The Host.
After wanderer is accepted into the community, she acknowledges that human beings are nice people. Thus, she does not agree with Seeker’s hostile actions to harm the humans. However, Seeker is determined to locate Wanderer. In her attempts, she accidentally kills a Soul angering her superiors. As a result, they call off the search for humans pocket and Wanderer in the desert. However, Seeker does not cease her search for Wanderer. After Seeker reunites with Wanderer, she is driven far away from the planet. Wanderer ensures Seeker is distantly far way in order to protect humans from her actions in relation to attacks on human beings.
Conversely, crewmembers in the spacecraft struggle to win against the alien creatures in The Alien film. Although the creatures attack each member, they all ensure that they jointly discover how the aliens are attacking humans in order to stop them. For example, one crewmember removes an alien creature attached to a human’s body. He discovers that the creature’s blood contains corrosive acid facilitating it survival on a human beings face. The characters in The Alien film however do not succeed in winning against the horrifying creatures. Instead, the alien creatures growing at unprecedented rates are able to aggressively attack and kill all the crewmembers in the spacecraft due to incredible agility and power.
These films were therefore developed in order to explain various values affecting relations in the society. Foremost, that evil does not succeed against good. The following scenes in The Host film can be used to assert this notion. For example, Wanderer’s evil attempts to take control of Melanie’s memories do not succeed. Secondly, her attempts to find humans pockets and destroy them with help from Seeker are not executed. Thirdly, Seeker’s attempts to impact humans negatively also thwarted. Lastly, Seeker is driven far away from her targets while Wanderer and good protective Souls continue to associate with humans in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Secondly, communities and societies grow and develop due to cooperation. The scenes in The Alien film applicable in asserting this notion include crewmembers undertaking various roles to ensure the spacecraft is safe as they return to planet earth. Some crewmembers are tasked to investigate transmissions, decipher mysterious signals, access damages on the spacecraft, and the rest to repair them. The Host film uses special effects to showcase alien creatures integrating into human bodies. It also uses special effects in order to facilitate communications between aliens and human beings. Conversely, The Alien film applies various special effects. They include a specially designed spacecraft, the alien creatures, the eggs deposited onto a humans face, ash, and chestburster. More so, different forms of music were played across various scenes in the film. For example, romantic symphony music was played as the film opened and ended. However, as the film progressed into scenes depicting suspense and fear, lyrical music was played in order to build up more anticipation, horror, and terror.
Conclusion
Both films develop plots based on alien creatures. In The Host film, there are several alien creatures including Wanderer, Seeker, and Soul. In addition, both films involve alien creatures that attach themselves into human bodies as hosts. In The Alien film, the extraterrestrial creatures attach themselves to a humans face. Both films use special effects to emphasize on the science and fictions. Both films ensured characters were cast from an international community depicting Korean-ness. Thus, both films use a similar technique applied in filming aliens and human beings in a scene. They were also produced in the English languages. The two films were produced and promoted on traditional conventions encoded as transnational products. They emulated a global appeal while retaining cultural aspects associated with blockbusters. However, The Host was more successful in relation to the audience and profits earned.