|
I Am Number Four
| Released |
23 February 2011 |
| Director |
D.J. Caruso |
Starring
|
Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Diana Agron, Teresa Palmer |
Writer(s)
|
Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Marti Noxon |
| Producer(s) |
Michael Bay |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
120 minutes |
| Genre |
Action, sci-fi, thriller |
| Rating |
12A |
|
|
Alien: The Teenage Years.
Being a teenager is hard, especially when you’re a handsome refugee from an alien planet. All you want to do is a little water skiing and maybe chat to some bikini chicks but your fun keeps getting ruined by a less aesthetically pleasing alien race bent on wiping you out. Maybe it’s a metaphor for acne but thankfully that’s about as deep as I Am Number Four gets. Although the similarities between this and the Twilight series are there to be seen, the latest teen novel adaptation is mercifully light on angst in favour of enthusiastic running, jumping and ass kicking.
The aforementioned teenage alien is John Smith aka Number Four (Alex Pettyfer). One of nine children saved from the destruction of their home planet, John finds himself constantly on the move with his warrior guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant). On his trail are the psychotic Mogadorians, a reptilian bunch led by Kevin Durand. When Number Three is killed, John and Henri flea to a small Ohio town but in the way of these things it all gets rather complicated when John falls in love with a local girl (Dianna Agron) and begins to develop supernatural powers that make it rather difficult for him to blend into the crowd.
Directed by D.J. Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye), the style of I Am Number Four falls somewhere in the gap between that of its big name producers, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay. The film has both a sense of humour and good old fashioned teenage adventure, combined with some truly impressive and exciting action sequences. These are well handled by Caruso, particularly the final showdown which is excellently choreographed, with some great CGI effects that never become muddy. The young cast are all likeable enough and the balance between romance and peril is right on the money for a teenage crowd. What’s more, the addition of the warrior girl Number Six (Teresa Palmer) towards the end of the movie provides a nice antidote to the sappy type of young women that usually find their way to the screen.
No doubt this will not be the last we see of Number Four (this is the first of what is planned to be a six novel series) but if they’re all as fun as this instalment, it will be no bad thing.
- Linda O’Brien |
