Movie Review - I am Four

I am Four

Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 109 mins

What it is about:

John and various other aliases (Alex Pettyfer) is an alien hiding from other alien forces that invaded his home planet and wiped out his entire race with the exception of him, the 8 other kids like him and their guardians. The alien invaders are hunting down each of the kids in order.  The first 3 have already been killed and are close on John’s heels. John’s protector Henri (Timothy Olyphant) moves himself and John to a small Ohio town where they can hopefully blend in with the locals. There John meets Sarah (Dianna Agron) an intriguing young woman whom he just can’t stay away from even though it draws attention to the local high school bully Mark (Jake Abel). John also starts to come into his powers and these changes also start drawing attention. John also befriends Sam (Callan McAuliffe) whose father disappeared years ago while hunting down rumors of aliens. Sam’s father is the reason Henri brought John to the small town, he was helping Henri find the other Numbers. As the aliens get closer and closer to John so does Number 6 (Teresa Palmer), who arrives just in time.

What I Thought:

Effects/Action:

The action scenes and effects on this movie are excellent! The movie starts immediately with an action scene that I had wished would have lasted a little longer, but it transitions quickly. The first half of the movie is fairly action free but once John starts coming into his powers it takes off running! The last action scene of the movie is a dozy!

Plot:

Invading aliens is not a new concept but they manage to get is pretty fresh. The first half of the movie is kind of slow and setting everything up, it looks as though they are preparing to make this a series. So I am Five should take off running. Think the X-men series.  I like the dynamic between John and Henri, it is not quite father and son, but it is close. Henri orders John around and John doesn’t obey, that’s about as close as you can get to a family as you can get without actually being family. J High School is John way to be “normal” in his otherwise chaotic abnormal life. The Ohio high school is the stereo typical movie high school. There are the jocks (Mark) and the geeks (Sam) and the jocks terrorize the geeks of course. Now I am originally from Indiana in not quite a small town but we would not be considered a large city either. And high school wasn’t really like this, but I guess it could be like that somewhere… John is drawn to Sarah, it’s easy to understand why, she is beautiful, fresh faced, wholesome, Midwestern girl. Although I never understood why action movies always throw in a love story, Hollywood, its ok to forgo the love story every now and then, I promise! Now the best part of this movie in my opinion is Number 6. She is a total bad a$$! Damn I want to be her! LOL!

Acting:

The acting was ok, nothing spectacular but no real complaints either. It looks like a young fresh, fresh, cast, who I look forward to seeing in future endeavors except Pettyfer in Beastly (See Beastly review).