You get a lot of movies where the trailers are way better than the actual film itself. I Am Number Four is one such movie. It’s a teen romance movie & a coming of age film combined with elements of science fiction & aliens on earth. Unfortunately for scifi enthusiasts looking for a good addition to an already awesome list of movies, this one kinda feels a bit like “Twilight” with aliens instead of sparkly vampires. While I like the special effects and some of the action sequences, it fails to elevate the movie from being anything more than a teen-angst alien Twilight amalgamation for me. Directed by D. J. Caruso the film stars Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer,Dianna Agron and Callan McAuliffe.

Apparently there were 9 survivors of an alien race from the planet Lorien (even that name sounds sparkly) sent to live on earth to escape an invading race, the Mogadorians, which destroyed their home planet. Each are sent to different part of the earth with a guardian to protect and guide the child. Our hero John Smith is one such alien, the 4th one and he lives with Henri, and moves from town to town occasionally to avoid detection. At the beginning of the movie one of the aliens is killed along with his guardian. John develops powers such as enhanced strength, speed and agility, telekinesis, and the power to generate light from his hands. When an incident occurs in Floria, Henri moves the two of them to a town in Ohio.

At his new school John befriends local conspiracy theorist Sam and a girl Sarah and also adopts a dog who wandered to their new house. When the school bully, who is Sarah’s ex, and his friends attempt to beat up John and take Sarah away, John uses his powers to fight them off. Sam witness this and John confides to his new friend of his true nature. As people start getting suspicious, Henri tells John that it’s time for them to leave this place as well, although John doesn’t want to as he has feelings for Sarah. The Mondrogians are approaching the town and there also seems to be a female alien on their track. The Mondrogians manipulate two locals to capturing Henri , who is mortally wounded and dies after John and Sam escape with some Lorien artifacts, including a blue rock that acts as a tracking device to locate other Loriens. While going to see Sarah at a party, John reveals his powers when he saves her from a fall and now the cops are after him & Sam too.

John, Sam & Sarah take refuge at the school where the Mondrogians let loose two monsters to attack them. The trio is helped by the female alien, who is actually Number 6 and John’s dog – a shape shifting chimera sent by his parents to protect him. John & Number 6 fight off the Mondrogians with their powers and all of them are destroyed in the final battle on the school’s football field. The next day John says his goodbyes to Sarah as he leaves with Number 6, the dog & Sam to search out the remaining four surviving Loriens. A repentant Mark comes to see them off and returning to John a box belonging to his father. John leaves with promises to return. I’m assuming that there are plans for a sequel. The book on which it is based ends where the movie does but you never know.

6 out of 10!