I Am Number Four

Principle Actors: Alex Pettyfer, Dianna Agron, Timothy Olyphant
Directed By: D.J. Caruso
Synopsis:  John is an extraordinary teen, masking his true identity and passing as a typical high school student to elude a deadly enemy seeking to destroy him. Three like him have already been killed ... he is Number Four. (via imdb.com)
My Rating: 3 out 5


I have seen this movie a hundred times; the same scenarios, the same characters, the same basic plot. The only differences between them are the actors and the names of the characters. The plot of this particular movie (stop me if you've heard this one): Teen boy is an alien from a dead planet. Teen Boy is being hunted by Bad Aliens that killed his home planet. Teen Boy has awesome powers that are just developing. Teen Boy moves to a new place, meets bully, meets bullied e.t.-believer friend, and meets, and falls for, bully's ex (who's surprised by any of this so far?). Bad Aliens find Teen Boy and wreck some havoc along the way. Bad Aliens threaten Teen Boy's new friends and girlfriend. Teen Boy fights back. Teen Boy kicks butt. Any questions?


So that's the movie in a nutshell. There's nothing original about it. Nothing unique either in the cinematography, costumes, action. It's all very average. Good enough but not a standout.


Let's move on to our stars.


I would like to start with a particular man-hunk. And it's not going to be the one you're expecting:

Alex Pettyfer. The first time I saw him was in Alex Rider: Stormbreaker. And he was much younger in that. The boy has grown into a fine man. I mean look at that jaw! And those eyes! And the hair!!!  Whoa. Down girl. You're getting waaayy off-track.
  Anywho. He's done some growing since the last time I saw him in anything. As an actor, he seems to be doing just fine. A good performance as a teen with secrets and fears. Seemed to handle the action sequences just fine. I kinda can't wait to see him in his next role as Kyle Kingsbury in Beastly. Beastly is another teen flick, also based on a teen novel just like I Am Number Four. His next role has him playing the Beast in a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. But he isn't really beastly. He's more, tattooey with weird things on his face. 

I'm going to leave this particular topic since I have quite a bit to say on it. I'll write another post to talk about this movie/book.


Moving on! Dianna Agron:

I give major kudos to this girl. She is working it outside of Glee. Granted, she's still playing high school students, but you work with what you're given. As Sarah in I Am Number Four she did a decent job. The roll she plays on Glee, Quinn, is fairly distinct. She has certain expressions and ways of speaking. In the movie, they were either toned down or nonexistent. So, again, kudos to her for making a similar character distinct. Now, I'm not saying she transformed herself into another personality the way Natalie Portman does, but she didn't dress up one character (Quinn) in a Sarah suit, which is what lesser actresses would do.


The bullied friend was good and provided the necessary comedic break. Not much else there. The one actor that really bugged me was the girl that played Number Six, Teresa Palmer.

Girl can't act. Period.  She had very few lines (blessing). The lines that she did have she was hard to understand because she didn't really annunciate. Combine that with a thick Australian accent and you get lines that take you a minute to figure out. And by then the scene has moved on, and you're stuck scrambling to figure out what happened while you were mentally engaged unraveling an unimportant piece of dialogue. Add to that over exaggerated facial expressions and you've got one hot mess. I get that her character is intense, but there is a distinction between the facial expressions of "intense" and "going on a killing spree." She looked like the latter for the entire movie. Please please please pretty please don't cast her in anything else. And if she must be cast, dear lord, provide the girl with acting coaches and speech coaches. She needs 'em.


So, all in all: another average movie. I think most teens will like it since it's got a good looking and recognizable cast along with some action and explosions.