I Am Number Four
Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer, Dianna Agron
Director: D.J. Caruso
Rating: 3/5
It's been nearly three years since we have seen D.J Caruso in the director's chair and two years since the lovely Alex Pettyfer graced the big screen.
But the pair have teamed up for new movie I Am Number Four, a big screen adaptation of the novel by Pittacus Lore.
John (Pettyfer) is an extraordinary young man, masking his true identity and passing as a typical student to elude a deadly enemy seeking to destroy him.
Changing his identity, moving from town to town with his guardian Henri (Olyphant), John is always the new kid with no ties to his past.
In the small Ohio town he now calls home, John encounters unexpected, life-changing events - his first love (Agron), powerful new abilities and a connection to the others who share his incredible destiny.
Ok so lets not be under any illusions here I Am Number Four is aimed primarily at a teenage audience - with Pettyfer in the lead role I imagine they were hoping her would do for this movie what Robert Pattinson did for Twilight.
And, to be quite honest, they have been very successful in what they appear to have set out to achieve.
Pettyfer is solid in the lead role as a teenager who is struggling to accept who and what he is with certain things about his race and his home being kept from him.
He has a great partnership with Timothy Olyphant, the guardian sent with John to protect him, it's a shame that Olyphant doesn't get more screen time - would loved to have seen him in the action sequences.
It's the central relationship of John and Sarah that really makes this movie work, it's much more believable than that of Twilight.
There is obvious chemistry between the pair as they both struggle with their high school days but finds in each other someone that they can trust.
There's no real action until the end of the movie and then D.J Caruso really piles on the fight, explosions and special effects - that personally I felt worked really well.
Ok so kid in a high school with special powers isn't too original - we have seen it so many times before - but this is a solid movie that can keep adults entertained as well as a teenage audience.
The characters are a little 2D, particularly John - it would be interesting to see him fleshed out a little more should there be a second movie.
All in all this is an good action movie that has some great relationships at it's core - I wouldn't be too surprised if a second movie doesn't follow.
I Am Number Four is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw