The Host vs Cloverfield - The Host is one of the Top 10 best Sci-Fi Movies of all time

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

pcslookout

Lifer
Mar 18, 2007
11,926
146
106
Originally posted by: Don Vito Corleone
Originally posted by: Anubis
Originally posted by: Don Vito Corleone
The Host was really overrated IMO. It was OK but didn't come close to living up to all the hype.

what hype? ive never heard of it

When it came out the reviews were just fawning. The critic in the New Yorker said he had seen it twice and planned to see it again, and made it sound like the most fun movie he'd seen in years. Suffice it to say I didn't agree.

The Host did not get any hype.
 

pcslookout

Lifer
Mar 18, 2007
11,926
146
106
Originally posted by: MoPHo
Watching The Host felt like eating a soggy piece of bread. Watching Cloverfield felt like eating a breakfast burrito while sitting in a car with no suspension driving down a road full of pot holes.

I vote Cloverfield. Breakfast burrito > bread.

You could not always hear what they were saying in Cloverfield over the crowd screaming at times in the movie. It shouldn't even be called a movie. The shakey camera is enough to give someone headache.
 

MoPHo

Platinum Member
Dec 16, 2003
2,981
2
0
Originally posted by: pcslookout
Originally posted by: MoPHo
Watching The Host felt like eating a soggy piece of bread. Watching Cloverfield felt like eating a breakfast burrito while sitting in a car with no suspension driving down a road full of pot holes.

I vote Cloverfield. Breakfast burrito > bread.

You could not always hear what they were saying in Cloverfield over the crowd screaming at times in the movie. It shouldn't even be called a movie. The shakey camera is enough to give someone headache.

It's ok, people are gonna think different from you. I thought The Host was an "eh" movie. Cloverfield felt like I was actually there and not just a spectator. My girlfriend also had to get up and throw up half way through the movie because she got motion sick, but she still liked it more than The Host too...kinda says something...
 

Krakn3Dfx

Platinum Member
Sep 29, 2000
2,969
1
81
I saw Cloverfield with my son yesterday. It's definitely a different take on monster movies, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's kind of a vindication for Blair Witch IMO, it's a similar style, but while BW kept you wanting something you would never get, Cloverfield rewards you pretty early on with some nice special effects and sightings of what you came to the theater to see. I also felt pretty immersed in the situation, there were times when I felt like the guy behind the camera, living the situation, trying to outrun something you can't really outrun.

I haven't seen The Host, will make a point of it now tho, I love a good monster movie, and based on what people have said, it sounds like something I could get into.

I don't much care for the "this ripped off that" mentality at all, I think if you can make a quality piece of work, even if it does take pieces from another work, as long as you come into it with your own angle, you can't be faulted for that. In my mind, Cloverfield took pieces from Blair Witch, Godzilla, Alien, and maybe this Host movie, and came out on the other end with something I enjoyed and will see again.

I do think it's pretty amazing that it made $41 million in the opening weekend when 4 out of 5 people I talk to are like "Cloverfield? What's that?"
 

preslove

Lifer
Sep 10, 2003
16,755
63
91
Originally posted by: Krakn3Dfx
I saw Cloverfield with my son yesterday. It's definitely a different take on monster movies, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's kind of a vindication for Blair Witch IMO, it's a similar style, but while BW kept you wanting something you would never get, Cloverfield rewards you pretty early on with some nice special effects and sightings of what you came to the theater to see. I also felt pretty immersed in the situation, there were times when I felt like the guy behind the camera, living the situation, trying to outrun something you can't really outrun.

I haven't seen The Host, will make a point of it now tho, I love a good monster movie, and based on what people have said, it sounds like something I could get into.

I don't much care for the "this ripped off that" mentality at all, I think if you can make a quality piece of work, even if it does take pieces from another work, as long as you come into it with your own angle, you can't be faulted for that. In my mind, Cloverfield took pieces from Blair Witch, Godzilla, Alien, and maybe this Host movie, and came out on the other end with something I enjoyed and will see again.

I do think it's pretty amazing that it made $41 million in the opening weekend when 4 out of 5 people I talk to are like "Cloverfield? What's that?"

Actually, Cloverfield samples from Blair Witch, Godzilla, and Alien much more than the Host. It really has nothing to do with the Host. I have the suspicion that the OP is an Asian (maybe Korea) of descent and just has a special attachment to the Host because it is a well done Korean movie.
 

RedRooster

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2000
6,596
0
76
Oh brother. I rented The Host last night after reading this thread, as I quite enjoyed Cloverfield. I seriously couldn't get past the first 20 minutes(the initial monster attack), it was so hokey and the acting was so brutal. Those Koreans are terrible actors if that's what they think is a monster movie. The monster was pretty bad too, like 15 people could probably beat it to death with bats, it didn't instill fear at all. Now the Cloverfield monster, now that's an mf'er.

I'll give it another try from where I left off, tonight. But I doubt I'll make it. Ughh.
 

bl4ckfl4g

Diamond Member
Feb 13, 2007
3,669
0
0
"Looks like some like The Host better. Of course another american movie ripped off a foreign movie again "


You are seriously comparing the two? They are nothing alike. Cloverfield wasn't ripped off from the host. It isn't similar at all.

The Host was deep and it wasn't even about the monster.

Cloverfield was a thrill ride.

Totally different and both were great in their own ways.
 

bl4ckfl4g

Diamond Member
Feb 13, 2007
3,669
0
0
Originally posted by: pcslookout
Originally posted by: Anubis
Originally posted by: Don Vito Corleone
The Host was really overrated IMO. It was OK but didn't come close to living up to all the hype.

what hype? ive never heard of it

:thumbsup:

It was pretty hyped up. Especially on movie forums like rottentomatoes. I though it delivered though.
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,729
559
126
The Host wasn't really that great. I liked the monster...but something just felt off about the whole script, and I still don't understand why it was so long. Maybe something is lost in translation, I don't know. I never really felt connected to the characters. The ending was good because it was nice to see the family working together. I liked that theme.

I really don't see many parallels to Cloverfield though. They're both monster movies...but why don't we argue that godzilla ripped off king kong while we're at it.
 

RapidSnail

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2006
4,258
0
0
Originally posted by: purbeast0
i love how when something comes out that is comparable to something older, that people have to get their panties in a bunch if the older one is a favorite of theirs and people like the new one.

especially when they try to bring people to the other side and putting down the current one that people are enjoying.

I haven't seen either one, but it seems as if the host is a jealous Asian who can't handle a decent American film that caries parallels to an Asian one. (It's always those dumb Americans anyway.)
 

pcslookout

Lifer
Mar 18, 2007
11,926
146
106
Originally posted by: RedRooster
Oh brother. I rented The Host last night after reading this thread, as I quite enjoyed Cloverfield. I seriously couldn't get past the first 20 minutes(the initial monster attack), it was so hokey and the acting was so brutal. Those Koreans are terrible actors if that's what they think is a monster movie. The monster was pretty bad too, like 15 people could probably beat it to death with bats, it didn't instill fear at all. Now the Cloverfield monster, now that's an mf'er.

I'll give it another try from where I left off, tonight. But I doubt I'll make it. Ughh.

Thats because you watched it dubbed. English dub version is horrible.
 

RedRooster

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2000
6,596
0
76
Originally posted by: pcslookout
Originally posted by: RedRooster
Oh brother. I rented The Host last night after reading this thread, as I quite enjoyed Cloverfield. I seriously couldn't get past the first 20 minutes(the initial monster attack), it was so hokey and the acting was so brutal. Those Koreans are terrible actors if that's what they think is a monster movie. The monster was pretty bad too, like 15 people could probably beat it to death with bats, it didn't instill fear at all. Now the Cloverfield monster, now that's an mf'er.

I'll give it another try from where I left off, tonight. But I doubt I'll make it. Ughh.

Thats because you watched it dubbed. English dub version is horrible.

That is true. The voices are brutal!
 

Krakn3Dfx

Platinum Member
Sep 29, 2000
2,969
1
81
Originally posted by: RedRooster
Originally posted by: pcslookout
Originally posted by: RedRooster
Oh brother. I rented The Host last night after reading this thread, as I quite enjoyed Cloverfield. I seriously couldn't get past the first 20 minutes(the initial monster attack), it was so hokey and the acting was so brutal. Those Koreans are terrible actors if that's what they think is a monster movie. The monster was pretty bad too, like 15 people could probably beat it to death with bats, it didn't instill fear at all. Now the Cloverfield monster, now that's an mf'er.

I'll give it another try from where I left off, tonight. But I doubt I'll make it. Ughh.

Thats because you watched it dubbed. English dub version is horrible.

That is true. The voices are brutal!

I'll have to make sure I watch it with subs instead, which, yes, is the only way to watch movies imported from countries like Japan, China, and Korea.