I Am Number Four

This is a film which is much more of a teenage high school romance than a serious science fiction film. The basic plot is that the good-looking high school hero is the last of an extra-terrestrial race hunted by another race of ruthless aliens. He is trying to remain anonymous but falls in love with a girl at his school, and both are in danger as the homicidal aliens close in on him. He has some extraordinary powers which he discovers which help him in his battle with the evil alien race. It would have been improved by exploring the story behind the alien conflict a little more, rather than focusing on high school relationships.

Basically it's a bit of OK escapist fun, but nothing for the serious SF fan to get excited about.

This is certainly a movie with a young public in mind. The idea is relatively original, there is a good amount of nice action, nice effects and the actors are good and promising. There are some cliches: some look good and make the movie funnier whereas other are just simply too much and they definitely damage the story.

You have to be into this kind of movie for young people, you have to be into sci-fiction, action movies, fantasy, extra-terrestrial stuff and forget about the bad cliches. In that case it's quite a nice movie and certainly worth renting it or buying it like I did. If you are not in the previous list and can't get past the cliches (some of them are funny though) this might not be the movie for you. But if you like action, sci-fi, fantasy movies it's quite nice and worth buying.

It won't get an Oscar (maybe special effects) but you will spend a nice afternoon watching it.

I enjoyed this film - partly I have to say because my expectation of main stream sci fi has been somewhat dumbed down: and I am a sucker for blonde women on bikes and young men with good shoulders. This is a pretty film, well made if not overdone
on the computer graphics: at least Number Four acts with a certain moody boy charm - unlike Edward in Twilight who seems to confine himself to narrowing his eyes and snorting. The premise is good if undercooked - and I certainly agree with the perceptive reviews above that this has a sort of pilot feel to it: a lot of lose ends. The fact is, that Twilight Meets ET aside, this is a close re-working of Roswell: in fact it contains the same universe down to the sheriff, the mean sheriff's son (made good at the end), the geeky boy, the box, the communication device, and the Nasedo character pretending to be daddy. In this sense I saw it - and enjoyed it - not so much as a film rip off but a sort of trope about sci fi and identity. Alas it turns into a sort of transformers-mutant approach towards the end with very BAD baddies and lots of explosions, but it was a good day out on a wet windy British bank holiday - teen music over moody shots is a bit wearing though after a while. Serious sci fi fo rme is stuff like Clooney's extraordinary reclaiming of Solaris - almost in many senses better tyhan the original - but it wasnt a hit and studios are driven, like political parties and fashion - into a middle ground in which content and dialogue and ultimately plot give way to a bland derivative format of bang bang kiss and moody endings. I liked the dog though, that was sweet - and this does get a place on the Hewitt sci fi shelves between Roswell Series One and Supernatural.