In this day and age, if you can come up with an idea for a movie, most likely it's already been created in some form. The over abundance of new movies has made it hard to create anything without stealing from someone else. "I Am Number Four" is an amalgam of modern teen movies and sci-fi TV shows, and as such, it contains few original ideas. So how does that all come together?
"I Am Number Four" is about John Smith, the fourth of the surviving nine members of an alien race called the Lorien. The movie starts with the death of the third member at the hands of the Mogadorian, a rival race from their old planet. He must now elude the Mogadorians, who will be hunting him next. His alien guardian, Henri, then takes him to Paradise Ohio to hide. It's here that John meets Sarah and falls in love, causing him to make mistakes and get discovered by Sam—a human who's father has a history with the aliens. After more people start learning there's something odd about him he's finally attacked by the Mogadorian and a climactic battle begins.
Alex Pettyfer portrays John and his performance is unbalanced. One minute he'll be explaining the universe to the viewers and helping set up the story, the next he's panicking about his newly found powers. It's hard to believe that someone who knows everything about his planet’s destruction has no knowledge of his powers. Henri, played by Timothy Olyphant, is the only truly believable character. Even the cheesiest romance lines feel real coming out of his mouth. Dianna Agron as Sarah is adequate, but as a character Sarah doesn't help the story. Her relationship with John is ripped straight from the "Twilight" series. Although it takes some time for their relationship to blossom, once it does it's filled with fake love dialogue at the worst moments. This story doesn't fit well and feels like it was only thrown in to draw in teen girls. You’ll have to get used to it though, because it takes up the first 40 minutes while little else is going on.
The movie’s minor characters grow to help fill the void left by lackluster performances, but not enough to balance out the main cast. Sam, played by Callan McAuliffe, has fun banter with John, but his story isn't really explored and is obviously being saved for a sequel. The film would have been more interesting from his perspective, and the way it is, it often seems like a story without enough information. The Mogadorian's also have jokes and one-liners that make it hard to hate them as villains. Teresa Palmer comes in at the end of the movie as Number 6 and adds excitement to the film. She is better-trained than John and all of her action scenes are intense and thrilling. While her scenes are enjoyable, her story isn't explored at all, and it's painfully obvious she was only introduced to save John from things he can't handle.
The film work and sound track are ripped straight from TV shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles." There are countless shots that are just the camera panning around John and whatever he's looking at, with pop music playing in the background. Moments like this and the stories bizarre pacing make it seem like a TV series.
"I Am Number Four" isn't an entirely terrible movie, but it's far from good. It does have great action scenes near the end and a small handful of enjoyable characters, but the main character isn't believable and the universe doesn't feel established. Nothing about it is unique enough to warrant the sequel the creators obviously are trying set up. Although it does make an okay movie for a one time view, you'd be better off watching shows like "Smallville" which have similar stories but aren’t quite as lame.
Written By Chris
Edited by Aaron
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