I Am Number Four - Flashy Lights Fail to Enlighten

With CGI becoming better and better with each passing year, flocks of people run to the theaters to see the newest action film with the largest explosions possible. However, no amount of editing and post-production work could have ever saved the so-called film I Am Number Four. Produced by Bay Films, it clearly has the stylistic special effects of the Hollywood powerhouse production company but unfortunately the films writing fails to deliver on every level imaginable and turns into a painstaking marathon to get to the end.

Based on the popular teen novel of the same title, I Am Number Four follows the story of a teen alien superhero teen named John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) who comes to Earth escaping death on his home planet from a rival species called the Mogadorians. John and his protector Henri seek shelter in a small town named Paradise, OH where John tries to blend in with the locals by going to high school. The writers, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, in an attempt to cater to a younger audience which the book is aimed at, work too hard to make the movie into a campy teen drama. Throughout the film, it feels as though the writers were trying to write a script for the show High School Musical with the plot twist being that one of the kids has the ability to shoot lasers from his hands and destroy things with his mind.

The result is a series of awkward moments that anyone over the age of fifteen years old would regret having to watch play out again in your head. John has an impossible time approaching Sarah (Dianna Agron), a girl he immediately falls in love with from class. To suspend beliefs even more, you learn John's species only falls in love once in a lifetime and apparently, true love could effortlessly be found over the course of three days. Also, with John being the new kid in town, he has to deal with the football squad picking on him and other various situations that any piece of fresh meat in the social ladder would have to deal with. Out of the 109 minutes of the film, these discomforting scenes overtake the film, making you want to bury your head in your hands and avoid the uncomfortable situation that is being portrayed on the screen.

There are many other issues with narrative and storyline that could have been improved. Overall, I Am Number Four encouraged me to continuously check my watch to see when I could get out of this disaster. Glowing hands and gigantic mythical beasts are really neat, but not even these could give this movie enough merit to be released alongside all the other summer blockbuster hits.