SHORT VERSION: I AM NUMBER FOUR hopes to launch a new young adult franchise in the vain of Twilight, and launch Alex Pettyfer into A-list stardom. Does it succeed or fall flat on its face? Read on to find out...
Truth be told, I was never excited to see this movie. The trailers were very mindless with the intention of following the status quo. A supernatural boy-toy falls helplessly in love with a normal everyday girl. He then must summon all his strength in order to defend not only himself, but everything he holds dear to himself. (Seriously! What movie am I describing?) Lazy hollywood bull****; however, like must big name films, I found myself in a seat of a crowded screening awaiting my cinematic vacation. While I would never say that this movie was overly good, I was very impressed with how much I enjoyed the other all experience of it.
"Look! A Spider-Monkey! Edward, you so crazy!"
The film tells the story of Number 4 (AKA: John Smith), the fourth of nine special alien children sent to Earth after their home planet of Lorien was conquered by their enemies the Mogadorians. (It is of my personal opinion that the Mogadorian's hate the Loriens because they are all beautiful people. However, this is just me making a wild guess at the background story of the whole thing. The movie doesn't take much time to explain.) I'm not so sure whether the entire Lorien race was destroyed in the conquest, or if the nine where sent to one planet while all the other survivors scattered across the galaxy to escape their deaths. If the latter, than I'm not so sure I understand why they would send all their saviors to the same planet. (Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.) The audience can only rightly assume that the nine are the only remaining people of their race, and their parents sent them to Earth with a single goal: one day they will grow up too...save someone else's planet from destruction... (Anyway, good/bad thing that planet was Earth! High five!)
"Yeah, we are totally fireproof. How can anyone not relate to this?"
So, back to basics. It turns out that the Mogadorians don't take the time to properly glorify themselves on the recent victory over the Lorien's planet. (Think of them like the colonial American settlers on crack.) They quickly decide to travel to Earth to take out the rest of the beautiful race of aliens. A task they apparently must do in numerical order for some unknown reason. (Extremely OCD?) This is something they are obviously doing with a lot of success; as seen in the beginning, when the Mogadorian's track down and kill Number 3. A scene that effectively sets the pace for the rest of the film, but is largely unneeded in the overall product. It is only there to effectively warn John (Played by Alex Pettyfer - probably one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen on screen. (No homo!)) of his impending death... forcing him to go on the run yet again.
John's keeper Henri (Timothy Olyphant) packs up shop and leaves for a new location - where he has business to take care of. (Very important business, but something that isn't really looked into until the end of the film.) Despite the his impending death, John refuses to stay home from high school for more than a day. (This guy must be an alien...) And with all the threats and dangers that might occur, he does his best to stay in the limelight of the community. He quickly befriends the school nerd (Good looking) and the formally popular high school photographer, Sarah. (No, its not Spider-Man. Oh! How cool would that be?) He even allows Sarah (Glee's Dianna Agron) to take several pictures of him throughout the day. (Ones that the audience sees only briefly. So many that it comes across as not only creepy, but also impossible when considering continuity.)
Naturally, it doesn't take long for the alien humanoid to become the target of the high school bully. (Who in true 80's fashion is a crazy psychopath.) Things even get more complicated when John starts to actually receive his superhuman powers, (This movie is actually about puberty. You should watch it again.) fall in love with Sarah, and make everyone and their mother start asking questions about his purpose. (Smooth move at blending in, stupid.) Furthermore, John's best-friend Sam starts asking relentless questions after he figures out that John is actually an alien.
Did anyone else see all the sexual undertones in the film? Was it just me?
Things quickly get crazy when the Mogadorians finally figure out where John is living. (Surprised it took them so long.) Luckily, John comes into contact with Number 6, (Teresa Palmer - Seriously, nobody on this planet was ugly. Earth must be hell for them. I wonder if any of them have ever been to Walmart late at night?) who helps him out in the epic final battle against the Mogs that leaves the local high school in a state of disrepair (Apparently, Number 6 has been hunting the Mogs for a while. I wonder, would they kill her if they got the chance? Given that they are hunting down the Lorien's by numerical order. Did she find a loop hole somewhere? Is there a real explanation of this whole "we have to kill them in order" idea?). Afterwards, in true Michael Bay fashion, John announces to the audience in an inner monologue that Earth is his home (Before it was just someplace he was crashing at before he could afford a real place.), and he will fight to protect it. The beautiful people drive off down the road. Roll credits.
"Flashlight hands! Activate!!"
Overall, the movie wasn't what I was expecting. Director D.J. Carusco was able to get a some good performances out of his young cast. This isn't something to really laugh at seeing as most films in the category fall in the opposite ben. The main cast really seems like they were trying to take the movie as seriously as possible - even though the concept is very ridiculous when you really think about it. D.J Carusco does a very good job at crafting the story into something that could be enjoyed by both sexes with over the top action/FX pieces and subtle romantic scenes. Alex Pettyfer and Dianna Agron seem to have what it takes to become the next big names in Hollywood. Whether this movie makes money or not - I don't think that will matter in the long run for them.
Despite this films almost instant enjoyability, (never-mind everything that is wrong with it. The movie is good overall) it suffers greatly from a terrible marketing push, and a story that tries to pander to four major demographics. (young male, young female, older male, and older female) There is simply to much in this movie. A lot of it goes on randomly without much explanation because there is just to much ground to cover from opening to ending credits. Plus, it doesn't help that the trailer is boring for those who don't know anything about its source material.
Maybe this movie will end up making its money back domestically, and a killing overseas. Then it could do well on DVD and Blu-ray - then we will probably be seeing an I AM NUMBER FOUR 2. (I AM NUMBER 5?) Either way, I don't really see that happening. This makes me sad because I AM NUMBER FOUR was the most fun this year has had to offer thus far, and I would welcome another film.
"These pictures are for later. (wink wink)"\
OVERALL...
Story: 7.0/10
Acting: 8.0/10
Special Effects and Lighting: 7.5/10
Wardrobe and Makeup: 7.0/10
Casting: 7.5/10
Directing: 7.0/10
Editing: 5.0/10
Music: 6.5/10
Cinematography: 7.5/10
Overall: 7.0
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