Review of I Am Number Four (2011) by Christopher E — 21 Nov 2016

A YA film adaptation that was better left unmade.

9 alien inhabitants escaped from their home planet when their race was desecrated. Now only 9 remain, and these 9 have the ability to save their race. However, they're being hunted down. As they hide away on Earth under the protection of their guardians, they fight for their survival as they're hunted down in order. Three are dead, and Number Four is next.

This was a mess of a film with no real substance and an absolutely generic plot. Nothing in this film was memorable and it was just another below-average sci-fi flick. It's also sad because this movie had a fairly unique and intriguing story-line behind it, but it just fell way short on execution.

Don't even get me started on the acting in this film. The crew was made up of an Abercrombie & Fitch model (no offense but it's true), a one dimensional guardian (cheers Timothy Olyphant), an over-stylized "hot chick", and a simple love connection. The actors in this movie were pretty bad for the most part honestly. No one could bring even a hint of emotion or personality to their characters and I could've cared less about them. I can truly say this with confidence when I say that the performances in this movie were underwhelming, if not ridiculous as a whole.

The story and the pacing in this movie was horrid. Like I said earlier, this film is based on a pretty interesting novel and a fun concept, it just fell short of execution. Nothing in this movie popped out as extravagant or unique, and it was nothing that I hadn't seen before. The love romance and the whole purpose of the movie was so generic, with no real substance to back it up. It's okay to have generic plot lines, it really just comes down to execution in the end.

The dialogue along with that was horrid. The screenplay was pretty cringe worthy at times and it felt like they tried to push this movie out there quickly. Most directors/writers could've written a film like this in less than a week, so why give it any more attention than the writers did?

The action was fine. I mean, it was the only real thing keeping this movie afloat. The movie is essentially mindless, dumb entertainment, if you can somehow find this stuff entertaining. The movie doesn't look terrible but it doesn't look great either. The effects are lackluster and the film just ain't memorable.

In the end, "I Am Number Four" is a disappointing film that continued the trend of YA novel to film adaptations. If you're looking for a good YA film, this isn't the place to search.