movie review
I Am Number Four
Sci-fi flick blends teen aliens and CG creatures
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Based on the trailer, I thought ‘I Am Number Four’ was going to be frightening and thrilling. I thought I’d be clutching my seat in terror the whole time. But alas, it’s just a mediocre film that I’ve already forgotten.
I got the feeling they were trying to go for the ‘Twilight’ or ‘Harry Potter’ crowd, since both of those franchises will be ending soon. ‘I Am Number Four’ has all of the right elements – angsty and good-looking teens, sci-fi elements, CG special effects, an ending that leads into a sequel, and D.J. Caruso as the director (he directed ‘Disturbia’ and Eagle Eye’). But again, it just wasn’t that memorable.
Actually, as I was watching ‘I Am Number Four,’ I kept thinking this would make a good TV series on The CW. It’d be perfect for that, and then they could develop the storyline a bit more and flesh out the characters. As a film, it felt very skimmed over, like they could have done a lot more if they’d only had the time. And you’d never know it was produced by Michael Bay; there weren’t any huge explosions.
The story revolves around a teenager named John, played by Alex Pettyfer, who’s having a resurgence lately. He’s in this week’s ‘Beastly,’ playing the beast part of the “Beauty and the Beast” story, with Vanessa Hudgens playing the beauty. He first came to my attention in 2006’s ‘Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker.’ I’m one of the few writers who actually liked that movie.
I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I say that John is an alien in ‘I Am Number Four.’ More specifically, he’s an alien from a planet named Mogador, and he’s hiding out on earth trying to avoid being killed by some menacing Mogadorians – who look a little like Voldemort, by the way. They’ve already killed numbers one, two and three. John is, of course, number four.
Here’s where the plot starts to break down. We never really learn why nine of Mogadorian’s citizens have fled to Earth, how they’re able to breathe our air and look like cute humans, and why these big creatures are after them. Apparently, none of that really matters, since the sexy alien-teens are the focal point. Also, John has super-powers. His palms emit a blinding light at inappropriate times, and he’s able to toss people into the air and such.
His “watcher” (shades of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’; note that ‘Buffy’ writer Marti Noxon wrote this screenplay) is a fellow Mogadorian named Henri (Timothy Olyphant), who poses as his dad and tries to keep John focused on eluding the bad guys. That’s tough, though, when John makes friends with humans Sarah (Diana Agron) and Sam (Callan McAuliffe), a teenager who gets bullied by other kids at school and has a connection with aliens in his past.
And then there’s “Number Six” (Teresa Palmer), a fierce and sexy alien who shows up to help John kick some Mogadorian butt.
‘I Am Number Four’ isn’t a horrible movie, and who knows? Maybe some big-shot from The CW will read this and start the ball rolling to turn it into a TV series. ‘Smallville’ is about to end its run, after all.
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