<\/strong><\/p>\n Directed By: D.J. Caruso<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer, Dianna Agron, Callan McAuliffe, Kevin Durand, Jake Abel<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Movies about characters with super powers are inherently alluring. There’s something extremely fun about watching someone walk around knocking villains off the face of the earth. Oddly enough, what can kill the enjoyment of films like this isn’t shoddy effects or lack of reason, rather simply not believing in itself. If the characters aren’t entirely into the story, how can an audience be? I Am Number Four<\/em> has just about every problem in the book, but it’s the major disconnect between director D.J. Caruso, his cast and the material that makes the film a downright waste of time.<\/p>\n \n Alex Pettyfer is David, or John, or Number Four. He’s actually one of nine teen aliens hiding on Earth since the destruction of their home planet, Lorien. Each has a guardian to protect them from the evil Mogadorians who are ruthlessly hunting them one-by-one. One, Two and Three have already been killed and John is next. In order to maintain his secrecy, he\u2019s constantly relocating and changing his identity.<\/p>\n \n The problem is, in his newest town, Paradise, Ohio, John finds a reason to stay for good, Sarah Hart (Dianna Agron). John also finds a friend in the school geek, Sam (Callan McAufliffe), who\u2019s got a deeper connection with John than just being school bully Mark\u2019s (Jake Abel) favorite targets. As the Mogadorians draw near, Henri (Timothy Olyphant), John\u2019s guardian, urges him to pack up and leave yet again, but John insists he\u2019s got something to stay and fight for, and fight he does.<\/p>\n \n Maybe there was something to Jobie Hughes and James Frey\u2019s novel by the same name, but the adaptation from writing trio Al Gough, Miles Millar and Marti Noxon is absolute junk. There\u2019s a major missed opportunity right from the start. The film opens with the murder of Number Three. What could have been an incredibly dark and threatening opening is shot sloppily and then drenched in terrible special effects. It\u2019s not scary, it\u2019s not foreboding, rather just a wasted opportunity of developing suspense.<\/p>\n \n Things don\u2019t get much better when we meet our protagonist. First off, his introduction is completely inconsistent with the plot. Henri insists John keep a low profile, so why would he be the big man on campus? Dashing John rides his jet ski into a pack of girls on the beach and greets them with swagger, yet when he gets to his new school, he\u2019s practically a reserved mute who thinks laying low simply means wearing your sweatshirt with the hood up. Even worse, Pettyfer is pretty awful in the role. In fact, he doesn\u2019t deliver much of a performance at all. When he\u2019s not leering for the camera, he\u2019s Edward Cullen to the max, sulking and mumbling his lines. Thanks to his \u201clegacies,\u201d the powers passed down by his parents, John may be packing a serious electrical charge, but you certainly wouldn\u2019t know it based on Pettyfer\u2019s performance \u2013 or lack thereof.<\/p>\n \n Speaking of painfully boring characters, Sarah is Quinn from Glee<\/em> minus the singing and dancing. Basically, she\u2019s dull all around. First off, the character herself is lackluster. She\u2019s entirely built on truisms. She\u2019s the popular girl turned loner who lurks in the corner taking photos with \u2013 gasp \u2013 a film camera. Now how retro is that? Actually, perhaps it\u2019s a good thing the writers stuck a camera in her hands, otherwise Agron would literally have had nothing to do and if she did any less with this role, she might have gone unnoticed entirely.<\/p>\n \n Pettyfer is generally new on the scene and Agron has yet to step outside the confines of Glee<\/em>, but Olyphant can definitely be described as wasted talent here. Henri is as one-dimensional as they come, always acting super serious and, of course, getting hit with the line, \u201cYou\u2019re not my father.\u201d Olyphant tries and it\u2019s obvious, but there is absolutely nothing he can do with this lifeless character in this nonsensical story.<\/p>\n \n The only two characters that show some sparks are Sam and Number 6 (Teresa Palmer). Perhaps it\u2019s just because Pettyfer is so uninteresting, but as the only other good alien in the film, Palmer is quite fun to watch. She doesn\u2019t get much screen time and when she does it\u2019s often misplaced, often inserted with no context, but that\u2019s not to say the girl can\u2019t put up a good fight. Most of her dialogue consists of quick one-liners, but when she says them, she\u2019s really saying them as Number 6 whereas Pettyfer is merely playing<\/em> Number 4.<\/p>\n \n Similarly, McAuliffe makes a good effort at turning Sam into a multidimensional character and it almost works. He\u2019s your classic nerd and his situations are predictable, but there\u2019s something very likeably about the guy. Whereas most of the characters in this film are like zombies, Sam has some life to him and when he\u2019s on screen, the film gets a new vigor to it.<\/p>\n \n
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