I Am Number Four
Genre: Sci-Fi/Thriller
Director: D.J. Caruso
Stars: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant and Dianna Agron
**
In I Am Number Four, John Smith (the very pretty Alex Petyffer, a former model) is the new kid on the block in a small Ohio town called Paradise, where he lives with his guardian, Henri (Timothy Olyphant).
John may have the most common name in America, but he’s no common guy. He’s actually Number Four, and he’s not from this planet at all.
John’s a stranger in a strange land; he’s one of nine alien fugitives from the destroyed planet of Lorien who have made their way to Earth. Another race of aliens, the evil and vaguely fishy Mogadorians, are hunting the Loric survivors, who must be exterminated in numerical order.
Loric survivors One, Two and Three are already dead; John, Number Four, is next on the Mogadorians’ list.
As anyone aged from 12 to 20 on planet Earth — and their beleaguered parents — will tell you, it ain’t easy being a teen. Imagine how hard it is to be an angsty alien teen, who’s developing superpowers as he morphs from Loric child to adult.
But a first love with Sarah (Dianna Agron, who plays cheerleader Quinn on TV’s Glee) helps John with his life on Earth. And Agron, along with Australian actress Teresa Palmer, who plays Number Six, keep the pretty quotient going.
I Am Number Four, with its attractive young people, ugly CGI monsters, giant explosions and superhuman alien stunts, may have enough going for it to get its target teens to fire up the DVD player and sit down for a bit.
But when they realize they’re being pandered to with a limpid script, they might just get up to make some popcorn and forget to wander back.
