{"id":791,"date":"2011-02-22T23:29:11","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T23:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/?p=791"},"modified":"2011-02-22T23:29:11","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T23:29:11","slug":"i-am-number-four-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/action\/i-am-number-four-3\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am Number Four – 3*"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s absolutely true that you need to be of the Twilight<\/a><\/em> teen generation to engage with Gough<\/a> and co\u2019s screen adaptation of \u2018Pittacus Lore\u2019s youth sci-fi novel of the same name. It\u2019s also true that you need to appreciate the \u2018crash-bang-wallop\u2019 nature of producer Michael Bay<\/a>\u2019s films \u2013 as in carnage of the metallic kind, here, like Transformers<\/a><\/em>\u2019 sight-depilating action collages \u2013 but read what you want into the former statement. What\u2019s true, too, is I Am Number Four<\/em><\/a> does fall prey to a bit of car\/alien carnage, which is not all Bay\u2019s doing as this is directed by D.J. Caruso<\/a> who\u2019s also partial to scenes of mangled metal. And watching this sci-fi romance on an IMAX screen makes quite an impression on the visionary senses.<\/p>\n

What I Am Number Four<\/em> does do is put a new Brit teen heartthrob on the radar, so it\u2019s pointless what any adult critic might have to say on the subject of the wooden acting and lack of chase scenes. Still, it\u2019s more of a \u2018character establishing\u2019 film for the next. But move over Rpatz<\/a>: Alex Pettyfer<\/a> has talents of all different kinds, playing alien \u2018Number Four\u2019, aka beached-blonde hunk \u2018John Smith\u2019 to Earthlings, one of the last of his kind from the Planet Lorien. Basically, if you\u2019re thinking Smallville<\/em><\/a>, you are not far off, as \u2018John\u2019, like Superman, is sent to Earth \u2013 albeit with an equally good-looking minder in tow called \u2018Henri\u2019, a warrior from the same planet, played in a capricious fashion by Timothy Olyphant<\/a>. Grown-ups: look out for The Terminator<\/em><\/a> nods. John\u2019s biggest threat is a bunch of \u2018Mogs\u2019, or \u2018Mogadorians\u2019 who are like extraterrestrial parasites dressed as tattooed Goth freaks and want to kill off Numbers 4 to 9 (still not a hundred per cent sure why?) \u2013 and John is next on the list.<\/p>\n

The Mogs are the least of Dear John\u2019s teen hormonal problems. What he doesn\u2019t vouch for is falling \u2013 and only once and hard \u2013 in love with airy-fairy, but talented photographer babe Sarah, the school jock\u2019s hot property, played by Glee\u2019s resident bitch Dianna Agron<\/a>. John also has to contend with \u2018coming out\u2019 \u2013 in the alien sense \u2013 to school nerd and UFO enthusiast Sam, played Callan McAuliffe<\/a>, whose father went missing looking for signs of E.T. years before.<\/p>\n

You instantly guess where the love story is heading, as well as John\u2019s inevitable \u2018meeting of might\u2019 with the Mogs. There\u2019s also some subtextual, smutty thrill to be had when John rudely discovers what \u2018greater power\u2019 can be had with his hands, than the usual teen awakening. Plus Pettyfer reels you into his folly, far away from home, and wins you over with his dopey, love-struck persona. Thanks be to the Aliens for the arrival of ass-kicking hottie Number 6, played by Teresa Palmer<\/a>, complete with a throbbing tank of gas on two wheels between her toned thighs for all the dads in the audience to lust over \u2013 without feeling guilty about having had a moment for underage Sarah. This is definitely family entertainment.<\/p>\n

I Am Number Four<\/em> seems to press all the same fantasy buttons as the Twilight<\/em> series, not necessarily making this affair wholly acceptable, but willing you to find out what happens next, after a bleedin\u2019 obvious sequel set-up. But there lies one of the film\u2019s main issues; has the slap-dash inject of, at times, poorly CGI-ed alien battlement captured enough of the imagination to find out what Number Four\/John does next with his hands? We liked to think so.<\/p>\n

3\/5 stars <\/strong><\/p>\n

By @FilmGazer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s absolutely true that you need to be of the Twilight teen generation to engage with Gough and co\u2019s screen adaptation of \u2018Pittacus Lore\u2019s youth sci-fi novel of the same name. It\u2019s also true that you need to appreciate the \u2018crash-bang-wallop\u2019 nature of producer Michael Bay\u2019s films \u2013 as in carnage of the metallic kind, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “I Am Number Four – 3*”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,7,9,5],"tags":[775,772,782,774,781,771,773,776,777,778,783,780,779,464,61],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-drama","category-family","category-fantasy","category-sci-fi","tag-alex-pettyfer","tag-alfred-gough","tag-callan-mcauliffe","tag-d-j-caruso","tag-dianna-agron","tag-i-am-number-four","tag-michael-bay","tag-rpatz","tag-smallville","tag-superman","tag-teresa-palmer","tag-the-terminator","tag-timothy-olyphant","tag-transformers","tag-twilight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":795,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions\/795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}