Have you heard of the planet Lorien? Well, our high school hero, John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) is amongst the 9 kids who survived from planet Lorien and has adopted Earth as his planet, along with his guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant). The film begins fast but doesn’t carry through as far as pace is concerned. The real enemies here are the Mogs, or Mogadorians, mutated versions of human form but much taller. Their job is to hunt the Loriens who survived, and kill them.
Each of the 9 kids is connected to each other in a way that we would deem impossible on Earth. If one dies, the others are is immediately notified because they are all etched with each other’s unique mark. Death of the Lorien kids or legacies (the more powerful amongst the nine) will cause the mark to burn through, almost like a self initiated immediate branding on the calf.
The film begins with the murder of the 3rd, and that’s why we have to survive the ordeal of number 4 and his guardian making a run for it, and the Mogs are always close. John’s narration helps fill gaps and we can ascertain that they’re always on the move. As such changing identities, cities, and leaving behind friends is an important survival tactic. They need to be low key at all times and Henri spends a lot of his time ensuring that John(I Am Number Four) isn’t popular, visible or traceable online.
What really kills the film is the elaborate college life, teen fights, and teen love plot in I Am Number Four. The only real character that emerges from the school plot is Sam (Callan McAuliffe), whose father it appears has been abducted by aliens. Considering number four is a legacy, he has special powers that make him stronger in time. Henri dies while protecting number four but reveals the rest of the survivors get together because together their strength is unmatched.
I Am Number Four film facts about planet Lorien:
- People from planet Lorien fall in love just once in their life
- We never get to know who number one or number two are and number three has a cameo at the start. The film only begins with number four trying to survive.
- Number six (Teresa Palmer) who is barely introduced at the start of the film and has a 10 minute action scene at the end, certainly deserves more screen time.
- They have a few decent action sequences, and the hay cart scary ride is well done.
- The chimera, 2nd guardian to I Am Number Four (first green lizard, then dog, then ultra big mutated dog form) forms an interesting character.
- Guardian Henri (Tomothy Olypant), is worth a dekko
Boring facts about I Am Number Four:
- The high school scenes and love are unnecessary
- Sarah (Dianna Agron) adds no value to I Am Number Four
- The teen angle may just be trying to woo the Twilight film series audience with their alien and human love angle
What could have been a much better film has been left at the crossroads. While people from another planet dressed in black with facial tattoos and traces of mutation always gets our attention, it really isn’t the same when trying to pull through a teenage love story alongside, and that too, a boring one.
Since we still haven’t seen or heard about Number five, seven, eight or nine, you can expect a sequel or prequel, or both for I Am Number Four at some point.
Feel free to tell us what you think.
