Review of I Am Number Four (2011) by Jordan A — 29 Oct 2012

I Am Number Four is a predictable, badly-acted, badly-written, entertaining sci-fi drama.

The characters are unoriginal and generally boring. The main character is a dull, irresponsible alien that prefers hanging out with some boring girl to ensuring the survival of his entire race. Literally millions of people -- I mean good aliens -- died during an attempt to save him, but he simply doesn't seem to care. He's selfish and idiotic; I'm glad that we got to spend time with likable characters like Henri and that nerd.

The movie could have been good if the writers decided to concentrate on the sci-fi elements instead of the high school drama. The cliched scenes in the high school just seem out-of-place among the possibly interesting sci-fi elements. Alex Rider also has no reason to be in high school, and the whole affair seems quite contrived. The dumb teenage drama trivialized all the serious moments in the movie.

The villains are quite dull, and their motivations are unclear. What did Number Four do to piss off the Midi-clorians?

The action is pretty entertaining, but there aren't enough fun action sequences to make up for the boring high school romance and drama.

I Am Number Four may be entertaining, but it is just an odd mixture of sci-fi, drama, action and romance.