Rating Categories:
- Overall Rating: 9 Stars
- Plot: 9 Stars
- Script: 8 Stars
- Acting: 8 Stars
- Music: 7 Stars
- Sound Effects: 10 Stars
- Special Effects: 10 Stars
(SPOILERS-WHY IT GOT WHAT IT GOT)
PLOT: I Am Number Four is the first book in the Pittacus Lore franchise. Unfortunately, it is the only one made into a movie. These quotes can really get you into the vibe of the movie and make you intrigued if you’re a sci-fi fan. “In the beginning there were nine of us. We left when we were young, almost to young to remember. Almost.” and “In the beginning we were a group of nine. Three are gone, dead. There are six left. They are hunting us, and they won’t stop until they’ve killed us all. I am Number Four. I know that I am next.” Doesn’t want you wanna know who “THEY” are and why they are all numbered? It’s about an ongoing battle between a dieing race with superpowers who were hiding and are fighting to stay alive so the Mogadorians don’t kill them (in order) and wipe out their race for good. You don’t actually find out why they must be killed in order until you read a few of the books.
SCRIPT: For a book developed into a movie they did a great job of keeping a lot of the original quotes or at least variations from the book. This is important in films like this because fans like it when their movies are mostly based on original content instead of loosely based like all DC and Marvel Comicbook movies.
ACTING: Alex Pettyfer does a wonderful job playing the approx. 17 year old Number Four secretly under the name John Smith. He really shows off how he can portray a high school teenager going through superpower puberty. Some actors who failed at this were Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman (2002) who was basically more mesmerized than scared about his future or how people would see him and another one is The Amzing Spider-Man (2012) whch was just basically an epic fail all together. A film that did this really well except it was adults was Fantastic Four (2005). Timothy Olyphant was an unbelievable Henri who basically a guardian of Number Four and older brother/father figure to him. Now you wanna see a good bad guy well you came to the right movie because Kevin Durand was perfect to play the Mogadorian Commander. He can play rude, ugly, and cruel very well with a dash of comedy sprinkled in. You may remember Kevin Durand as Fred Dukes/The Blob in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).
MUSIC: The music was unbelievable when you wanted to get pumped and into a fight. It was all well produced and well orchestrated but don’t expect a huge inspired by the movie soundtrack.
SOUND EFFECTS: Perfect. With the amount of powers and fight scenes they had they really knew what sound was perfect for where and when.
SPECIAL EFFECTS: Top Notch! Number Six (played by Teresa Palmer who would have been the star of the sequel that unfortunately didn’t get made due to screenplay disagreements) had the power of invisibility. When you have a character with this power you need the right demonstration of it and to show someone appear and reappear the amount of times she did in fight scenes was great and the sound effects combined with it just made it even cooler. Number Four’s light power is all about the glow that came off his palms. It had to be done in a way that it wouldn’t come off as an Iron Man poser. They succeeded by adding a little of blue flair and a neon tint to it that you can see in most poster for the film. If you are studying Special Effects watch the ending of this movie!
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