I am Number Four

“I am Number Four” a story about an alien with superpowers that falls for a feeble human girl contains a conventional story with unimpressive acting and script and causes the movie to be nothing more than “Twilight” with aliens.

“I am Number Four” follows the story of John Smith (Alex Pettyfer). He looks just like a normal human, but he is not. He and his guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant) are from another planet. There are also other aliens called Mogadorians that are trying to kill John and his kind. There are nine and they need to kill them in order, and four, John’s number is next.

John and Henri also move around a lot and their newest home is Paradise, Ohio. Life changes for John at Paradise, he begins to have special powers, he begins to fall for a girl and some questions begin to be answered. However, time is running out and the enemy is closing in.

The story is nothing audiences have not already experienced, for those who have seen “Twilight” it’s sorta like déjà vu, except it’s a boy and the main character is the one with the supernatural abilities. However, audience’s attention is at least held with the promise of a showdown once the Morgadorians find John, which lives up to expectations but nothing more.

The movie also has more characters than they know what to do with. Sam (Callan McAuliffe) is a kid that is picked on at school when John befriends him. His Dad (who has mysteriously disappeared) somehow figured out the aliens’ secret. So now Sam is helping John. The character fits into the plot awkwardly, which distracts from the main plot. There also these creatures that the Mogadorians use to kill the numbered aliens, seemingly for no other reason than every alien movie has to have a monstrous alien creature right? Also some elements to the story are forgotten and never brought up again.

Also the script by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Marti Noxon is not very good (once again like “Twilight”). It contains so much corny dialogue, crosses the line from lame to laughable. It’s predictability also makes it unentertaining. There are also some pretty humorously cliché slow-motion scenes as well.

The acting was also not that fantastic, the entire cast was flat and unconvincing. This causes the characters to be unbelievable which made the audience not care about them as much as an audience should.

“I am Number Four” takes place mostly at high school… or at least it tries to. It does not pull off the high school feel at all. The football players don’t look like football players. The skaters don’t look like skaters. The hierarchy is the traditional football players rule the school, which when I was high school (last year) the football players didn’t care what anybody else did. The only part of the high school that was actually similar to my high school experience was the crowded classrooms.

Another unbelievable plot element was that Sarah (Dianna Agron) John’s romantic interest has a controlling ex-boyfriend Mark (Jake Abel) who doesn’t want John messing with Sarah. He pulls pranks on John and even kidnaps Sarah at the fair. I could be wrong, but I really don’t think a high school boy would really care that much about his ex-girlfriend, not to mention go through all the trouble of keeping her single (particularly if he has football to play, does he have time for it?).

“I am Number Four” does have some decent special effects that show off John’s powers. There is also some realistic make-up of the Mogadorians (one difference of “Twilight”) that show the aliens with sharp teeth, slit noses and gill-like things by their noses.

“I am Number” keeps the audience’s attention at best, but to expect or ask for anything more would be ridiculous and an unmet demand. Subpar acting and script along with a unsurprising plot makes this movie above all, immensely unbelievable, making “I am Number Four” unforgettable. So forgettable perhaps the producers will forget to make the next one.