Review of I Am Number Four (2011) by Rameshwar N — 08 Mar 2012

Where do I start? It had everything going south from the word go. Story, screenplay, direction, production values, visual effects until the climax, acting, editing, sound mixing. You name the department, there is a good chance they have screwed up. My generous rating is solely for the decent visual effects and action choreography towards the wee end of the movie, nothing spectacular but boy was it a sight for sore eyes.

Nine alien children with special abilities each assigned a warrior guardian from the planet Lorien are transported to Earth fearing their safety from a renegade faction Mogs. These children were expected to grow up, grow in strength and come back and fight for the natives. Among them is John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) and his guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant). They keep changing places and identities to be invisible. Mogs have located them on Earth and they have already killed 3 of the 9 children and our protagonist is Number 4. John Smith falls for a girl in his latest relocated place and wants to hold on to her as the Mogs track him down to finish him. When Henri falls, he finds an unlikely guardian to take on the Mogs and avenge Henri's death and end his lifelong confinement.

Well as you read it, with the premise and the big studio behind it makes you wonder how can it be so bad? In my opinion this has a weird similarity with 'Donny Darko' and the first 'Twilight' movies and I can understand if some might beg to differ. Both feature a teenager with special abilities who come out of their shackles when they fall for a girl from the same school. The treatment of the romance bit is so clichéd and cheesy I had to wake up from a slumber when the pyrotechnics of the climax kicked in. Alex Pettyfer may not have the same looks but has the same acting prowess of Robert Pattinson. The entire production seemed to have targeted teenage girls and sci-fi fans. I cannot vouch for the former, but definitely failed miserably with the latter.

My marathon of mediocre to bad movies is going a little longer than I hoped, I guess it is as good as anytime to hit a pause. But I do hope I am doing my readers a favor by bearing the brunt and keeping them at bay.