Plot: John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) is an alien from planet Lorien who was sent to Earth as a child alongside eight other toddlers to escape an invading race, the Mogadorians, which destroyed their home planet. He is protected by a Guardian, Henri (Timothy Olyphant), and has developed superpowers due to his alien nature, such as enhanced strength, speed and agility, telekinesis, resistance to fire and heat and the power to generate light from his hands.
The Mogadorians, led by the Commander (Kevin Durand) eventually find out about the nine toddlers and come to Earth in search of them. They can only be killed in sequence, with three of them having already been slain. John is Number Four. Knowing this, he and Henri move from Florida to Paradise, Ohio, where John befriends Sam Goode (Callan McAuliffe), who is devoted to conspiracy theories and believes in aliens; and falls in love with amateur photographer Sara Hart (Dianna Agron), whose ex-boyfriend, Mark James (Jake Abel) is a bully who often torments both John and Sam.
Impressions: I Am Number Four. This was a pretty simple movie, it’s definitely a franchise and I was surprised to see how only the first book is out and the second book is due out this summer. From what I read it’s a 6 book series and from what I read about the book versus the movie. The movie adaptation did it’s own thing and was pretty enjoyable. I’ve only got the wiki book description to go off of, but based on reader impression I get that the book is probably more love story than what was shown on screen.
It’s got a bit of the Twilight-esque in it, but not so much that it relies on the love story as the driving force. Basically there are 9 aliens and their guardians living on Earth in hiding, as another race of aliens have wiped out their planet and seemingly have followed them to Earth. There are a few questions, as why the aliens are on Earth, what is their importance, who are they really, etc. It’s enough to keep you engaged and again very simple.
I think Caruso did a good job with the directing, there was a sequence during a fight scene, where it was 2 on 2. But each fight was an individual fight, Caruso did a great job of capturing the cinematography of the fights as they were going on at the same time. I haven’t seen anything like that just the way it was framed and sequenced. I appreciated it. The reviews haven’t been too kind on it, but I think it’s just another one of those movies that is what you expect it to be. I enjoyed it, much much more than say The Mechanic. Not much else to say! Good popcorn, solid film.
