Movie Review: I Am Number Four

Three are dead.......and I....AM NUMBER FOUR!!! I have to say that that tagline is handsdown the coolest thing about this film. The title of the film is fantastic and is pretty much the only reason why I wanted to watch this movie since I have no interest in "corny as" teenage romances and hands that are homemade flashlights. How have I already seen it?? I happened to catch an advanced screening of I Am Number Four and I came out with a reaction that I have been getting a lot lately after watching a film...............meh.

I Am Number Four is not a bad movie.......but its not great either. Let me just start off by telling you that this movie is a shameless ploy to get your teenage soul into the theater. American film studios know that you are probably making $100 per week from your job at McDonalds and have no bills. So they release films with cool special effects, and "hunky" hearthrobs to get your hormonal ass into the theater so they can take your spare change. This film is S-H-A-M-E-L-E-S-S. They end it on the most obvious cliffnote that they want to make another one......and then another one..........and then another one. So beware, there is a high possibility of a franchise that you will be compelled to see even if you hate this movie. Watching I Am Number Four is not losing $8 hard-earned dollars on a monday. It's like losing $50. So the film itself:

I Am Number Four is about aliens. One race that looks like it fell out of Cosmopolitan and the other that looks like the fresh salmon your mom buys at the fish market (the enemy race has gills...that's right-gills.). The idea is that Number Four's race was destroyed except for nine children and their guardians. They are being hunted down by the evil race that destroyed their home planet (the fish people) and are killed one by one in order. These children possess special powers and that is why they are being hunted down. So like I said.....three are dead and he is Number Four. He's next to die and he's on the run. That's pretty much it. So lets start with the positives:

Alex Pettyfer is actually quite a good actor which is quite suprising considering how awful his first film 'Stormbreaker' was. He does quite a good job of convincing you that he hates his life and is distressed because there's a good chance he might die. The action is great. There are some awesome scenes in the movie with cool alien guns that makes aliens disengrate, and cool knives, and telekinesis powers and teleporting. Just pretty much cool action stuff. That's what makes this movie good. Now what you all want to hear, the bad things about this movie:

This movie suffers from what like I to call......Twilight Syndrome. Twilight Syndrome dear children, is a situation, where the lines (insert here) and the acting (insert actor's name here) and the background music (insert background music here ), is so overdramatic that you want to pick up your slushie, that you paid a ridiculous amount of money for at 'Scoop Alley,' and chuck it at the screen. It's always for the STUPIDEST situations that do not require that much drama. Like Number Four's relationship with his love interest (whose name I am not going to tell you about because I don't think it's important) is so forgettable its not even funny. This is the cause of Twilight Syndrome. They try to create this 'we are meant for each other' bond that just comes across as cheesy. So cheesy in fact, that I put in the effort to roll my eyes at the screen even though no one was looking. The whole point of an eye roll is so that that someone can see it! And the special effects:

They skate on thin ice in this movie. Sometimes it looks fantastic and others it looks cheap as hell. If they can flesh out whatever ridiculous million dollar sum to make the movie, they put out a few million more so that the movie doesn't resemble a cheap cartoon. One of the characters (who I won't tell you about for the sake of not spoiling the movie) is played by an Australian actress who seems to be very confused. She can't decide if she is American or Australian so she just speaks with this wierd hybrid of an accent that sounds like she spent Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday in Australia and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in America.

So yeah....I Am Number Four is in the middle. Some parts are good and some parts are utter crap. I happened to enjoy this movie because I like it when things blow up and people die. Enough people died and enough things blew up for me to to enjoy myself.

So if you like action and corny romance then you will love this film. If you like one of these components you will like the movie. And if you hate both this film is not for you. If you're a

teenage girl there's still hope, you can just stare at Alex Pettyfer (who is apparently hot) and still like the movie. If you're a boy (or girl) and you hate all three of those components, you're doomed.

Peace, Love, Homemade Flashlights

Arabena