After looking at the box office take for the weekend, I Am Number Four came in second.  I almost hate to say that I am part of that reason.  Yes, I paid to go see it this weekend.  I’m not saying it was a bad movie, but you know….sometimes there are those films that you don’t want to help out.  I know that sounds awful.  This film would have done just fine without my $7.50, but I contributed none the less.  This is not a movie I was opposed to.  It looked interesting.  But it also looked like it contained every teenage angst-ridden cliché out there.  In the age of the Twi-hards, this fits right in.  Ok, maybe I’m not being fair and jumping the gun here.  But I doubt it.  I fully understand that I’m not the demographic this movie was geared toward.  Be that as it may, I’m still going to throw the BS flag down on that argument because I like loads of kids movies.  So age has nothing to do with it.  It’s not the content….it’s the quality of the content that matters.

Photo from Moviesmeter.com

If you’re unfamiliar with it, I Am Number Four is directed by D.J. Caruso (Eagle Eye, Disturbia) and stars pretty boy James Pettyfer, Dianna Agron, and Timothy Olyphant.  The story deals with John/Number Four (Pettyfer).  John is one of nine children from an alien race called the Loriens.  Their home planet was destroyed by the evil and scary looking Mogadorians and were sent to Earth to survive, mature and train since they’re the only ones who can defeat the Mogs.

The Mogs are systematically (by that I mean in numerical order) killing the kids one by one.  At the beginning of the film we see #3 get iced so naturally they move on to #4 and that means John.  John and his guardian, Henri (Olyphant) have to up and move again so they can start fresh and live the low profile life that is required of their situation.   Jon doesn’t want to feel like a prisoner, so he decides that he’s going to high school.  Yes, he willingly attends high school.  I know a lot of people who thought that high school WAS a prison, but that’s besides the point.

Photo from Filmofilia.com

John’s meets up with the token football player brute squad, the token abused geek and the token former-in-crowd-now-exiled-exgirlfried-of-the-quarterback pretty girl.  So much for keeping a low profile right?  Anyway, John falls in love with the girl….drama drama drama……Mogs come to kill him….drama drama drama.  You get the picture.

I’m probably not being fair to the movie, but seriously.  Most of the plot points you can see coming from a mile away.  There were also some gaping holes and questions that were never answered.  It’s all very formulaic and typical, but I will admit, it was still mildly entertaining.  Hey, Timothy Olyphant was in it and that’s a huge, I mean HUGE bonus.  So definite points there.

This film at its heart is a lesson in pandering to the teen generation.  It’s got the romance aspect for all those teen girls who go oogly and think that movie love is true love and that’s just how it should be in real life.  Sorry sisters….hate to be the cynic here.  It’s just a movie.  It also has the action for the guys who just like to see stuff get blown up.  Nice that they are trying to draw both crowds there.  Personally, I’d rather just see stuff get blown up.

Photo from Comicheronews.com

The action scenes are actually pretty good.  The visuals are as well thankfully.  Nothing worse than crappy CGI.  The major battle throw down toward the end of the film was pretty well executed but it doesn’t make up for the movie’s failures.  The film really picks up when John starts to acquire his “legacies’.  Meaning his super alien power.  I equate it to him reaching and going through a sort of alien puberty.  These things start to happen, he doesn’t quite understand it, he freaks out a little bit and then has a discussion with Henri, who explains it to him.

It’s only a matter of time before we hear talk of a sequel.  The ending of the movie was left wide open for them to continue the story and with its coming in at #2 this past weekend, I’m sure the studio will fast track a sequel.  The book series is supposed to span six books, so I’d say a sequel is pretty much guaranteed.  Will it be the next Twilight?  I hope not.  I don’t think I could handle talk of Team Four.  I shouldn’t even think those words….I take them back.

So even though I contributed to the potential sequel machine, I did, for the most part enjoy I Am Number Four.  In a passing the time sort of way not in a serious piece of cinematic viewing way.  Sometimes we need those guilty pleasures and I think this will fall into that category.  Not sure about it?  See the trailer to make a final decision.

Verdict: 2 out of 5 togas

**Banner photo from The-Numbers.com

About the author

Tracy Ladd has written 402 articles on this blog.

Tracy has been writing about film since her days on the her high school newspaper. Even though she took a decade or two off to explore other things, she's back to doing what she loves. She also bakes, can knit a pretty nifty scarf and makes lightsaber sounds with her knitting needles. Or chopsticks. Especially with the lightsaber chopsticks. Follow her on Twitter: @baddladd

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under Film, Film Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.