A couple of nights ago, my family informed me that we would be making an excursion into Longview for dinner and a movie. I'm not really a dinner and a movie sort of guy. I used to be, but age and health have had an effect on the landscape. Even so, I decided I ought to go. After all, I hadn't been out with the family in a while.
I really wanted to see Paul. I was unaware that in spite of having opened in the United Kingdom, the movie doesn't land on this side of the pond until next month. The family wanted to see I Am Number Four -- a film I knew little about, except that my man Timmy O. had a leading role -- and that was fine by me. Besides, who am I to argue? I suppose I could have slipped in to see the Justin Bieber film instead, but one can only take so much teen heart throb at a time.
Based on a young adult fantasy novel by James Frey and Jobie Hughes, I Am Number Four tells the story of an alien teenager who was sent to Earth by his loving parents on the eve of their home world's inevitable destruction. He is Number Four, and there are only eight other beings like him still alive today. Three of them have been killed off by a viscous race of Alien Bad Guys, and because they are apparently unable to deviate from their handy-dandy hit list, Number Four is next in line for the cull.
I'm not going to lie: the film isn't that great. The concept has potential, but the story is threadbare, the dialog is weak, the actors are wasted, and a lot of the characters are forgettable tropes (the Leading Lady's Loving Family only has one scene in the entire movie). Even Trevor Rabin's score feels tired. If I were the type of person to accuse a film composer of phoning it in, this score would be Exhibit A.
What the film does have going for it is stylish direction. D.J. Caruso is the fellow who put together Eagle Eye -- a fairly entertaining thriller, in my opinion -- and he's worked on a number of television shows, including The Shield and Smallville. There's a lot of kinetic energy in the cinematography, and although it takes a while for things to really kick off, I Am Number Four works best as an above average Sci-Fi/Action film.
The fight choreography (what little there is) doesn't get dull, and the special effects are pretty good for a film that isn't a summertime blockbuster. I generally like the sort of special effects you'd associate with superhero fight flicks, and there are plenty of them in the third act.
Speaking of Smallville, I wasn't surprised at all when the credits for the film began to roll and I saw the script attributed to Alfred Gough, Miles Miller, and Marti Noxon. Throughout the film's run time, I kept thinking about how derivative it felt of other, better superhero franchises. Smallville and Buffy the Vampire Slayer came to mind right away, so it seemed only natural that some of the people behind those two franchises were involved with this movie.
Unfortunately, their script just isn't very strong. It's filled with dialog that's difficult to take serious, and the opening narration explaining the main character's backstory is painful. When it comes to movie making, the "expositional monologue dump" is my least favorite narrative crutch. If there isn't the time or money to show us what happened to Number Four's planet, then at least come up with a more interesting way to tell the audience about it. Don't dump it in our lap in the first 10 minutes and expect us to care. Drip feed the information to us over the course of the story, let us get invested in Number Four's life and plight before expecting us to feel an emotion about an event we'll never see and which will have little to do with the events of the film.
Unfortunately, their script just isn't very strong. It's filled with dialog that's difficult to take serious, and the opening narration explaining the main character's backstory is painful. When it comes to movie making, the "expositional monologue dump" is my least favorite narrative crutch. If there isn't the time or money to show us what happened to Number Four's planet, then at least come up with a more interesting way to tell the audience about it. Don't dump it in our lap in the first 10 minutes and expect us to care. Drip feed the information to us over the course of the story, let us get invested in Number Four's life and plight before expecting us to feel an emotion about an event we'll never see and which will have little to do with the events of the film.
Having said all that, I'm actually considering picking up the novel on which this film was based. The authors intend to turn the story into a six part series, and I'm always on the lookout for new fantasy/adventure stories to read. The next book is due out later this year, and while I highly doubt it'll be optioned for the big-screen treatment, I'd probably watch it if it was. The film did a lot of things wrong, but I still enjoyed seeing it.
I Am Number Four gets a 6/10.
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