I Am Number Four

Hollywood is still desperately searching for the next big teen sci-fi/fantasy franchise to take over from Harry Potter. I Am Number Four, based on the novel by Pittacus Lore (the first of six proposed) is the latest attempt. And that is its main drawback - it feels too much like it is trying to set up a franchise rather than telling a story in its own right. Thus we get too much introduction, too many alien artifacts which are never really used or explained and characters who are glimpsed (like Theresa Palmer's Number 6) before swinging into action in the final moments to show us all what we've been missing.

The plot follows alien teenager (Alex Pettyfer, Stormbreaker) who is hiding as a human on earth from evil other aliens who want to kill him and generally trying to contain his super-powers at High School whilst romancing a human girl. Anybody hearing echoes of TV series Roswell here is not without justification. The parallels stretch right down to the fact that the High School sports star/bully is the son of the local sheriff and has had a past relationship with the lead alien's crush. In many ways, Roswell had more engaging characters and action. Here we get Timothy Olyphant in strangely reined-in mode when  the film could have done with him letting loose. We also get a voice-over introduction about Mogordorians or something like that - never a promising sign in a film like this.

Despite all that, there is potential here - Pettyfer has clearly developed as an actor since Stormbreaker. The bad guys are rather fun (if a bit stereotypically so) and when things do finally take off in the last twenty minutes there are signs of something that could work. Then just as its getting going, the credits roll.

Overall - 5.5/10 Plays more like a pilot for a re-boot of Roswell than a stand alone film, but not without its potential and pleasures.