Aficionados of movie monsters will find things in The Host that they have been waiting to see all their lives: a monster lazily unfurling itself from the girders beneath a bridge; for instance; or a view from a moving elevated train that frames the monster as it gallops lustily across a park filled with scattering locals. If the realization of a creature were all this movie had going for it; director Bong Joon-ho would have enough to be proud of; but The Host offers more food for thought; and plenty of food for the monster. Bong creates both a deeply eccentric comedy about family and a cheeky gloss on political currents. The monster is created when a U.S. military doctor (Scott Wilson in an unnerving cameo) orders a South Korean soldier to discard chemicals into the Han River in Seoul. Sure enough; a toxic monster is born; as we see in an opening reel that is surely the most exhilarating monster intro in years. Our central figure--of the human variety; that is--is played by Song Kang-ho (who also starred in Bong's Memories of Murder); as a hilariously lazy slob who must fight to discover what happened to his daughter after she was snatched up by the creature. Along the way; the film makes some pointed cracks at the ease with which governments can exploit public fear for their own purposes; and there's some satire aimed at U.S. intervention in global affairs. The film has some serious lulls; and would have been a tighter; crazier head-rush if it were 90 minutes long instead of two hours. But in general this is a much smarter Godzilla movie than Godzilla movies ever were. --Robert Horton