Movie Review: I Am Number Four

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Likable characters draw you into the story

Cons: High school plus aliens not quite balanced

The Bottom Line: 

Two parts to story

Not well balanced.  Characters

Draw into action

High School Drama with Aliens

From the title alone, I wasn't that interested in I Am Number Four.  But then I started hearing the plot line and saw my first ad, I was intrigued enough I decided to see it.  It has some flaws, but I'm glad I did.

The film opens in a hut in the middle of the jungle.  We pan over the sleeping inhabitants until one is awakened by a noise.  It isn't long before both are killed.

The news of this death quickly reaches a teen living in Florida.  He and his guardian flee from there to Ohio where they start over again as John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) and his father Henri (Timothy Olyphant).  Against Henri's wishes, John goes to the local high school where he makes friends with the local geek (Callan McAuliffe) and runs afoul of the high school quarterback (Jake Abel) when he develops a crush on the quarterback's girl (Dianna Agron).

But John has a secret.  The reality is that John is one of nine children sent to Earth as his planet was being over run by an invading species.  The invaders have followed these kids to Earth and plan to wipe them out before taking over our planet.  They've already killed three of the kids, and John is next on their list.  What will happen when they reach their target?

In some ways, this movie felt like two movies crammed into one.  We've got the high school drama side of things, which felt pretty much like any other high school movie you've seen.  But every so often, we'd be reminded that this was also an alien movie.  The end of the movie switches the proportions as the alien side of things takes over.  In some ways, I felt like neither part was truly given time to develop because we had to have time for both.

Now this isn't to say I didn't enjoy the movie.  I like John, so it was easy to get lost in the story.  The friends he made in his new town were great also.  As a result, I got caught up in the story, high school drama or alien invasion.  And because I cared for them, I found the climax very gripping.

I was mostly unfamiliar with the cast going into this movie, so I had no idea what the acting would be like.  It's not going to win any awards, but everyone did a great job of letting me get lost in the story.  None of the performances threw me out of the movie, and that's all I really needed.

There are several fight sequences.  All of them take place at night, which makes it hard to follow the action at times.  The climatic battle was easy to follow, which I appreciated.

For an alien movie, there weren't a ton of special effects, most of which are also bunched near the climax.  A few of them were obviously computer generated, but my mind only noticed that for a second or two before I got swept back into the story.  Most of the effects were completely believable, however.

My understanding is that I Am Number Four is based on the first in a series of books.  After watching the film, I'd certainly be interested in reading the books.  I wish the movie had the time to fully develop the dueling high school and alien plots, but it was still an enjoyable story.