A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: I Am Number Four

Date Viewed: 2/20/11

Details:

Alex Pettyfer

Timothy Olyphant

Dianna Agron

Callan McAuliffe

Teresa Palmer

Director: D.J. Caruso

Score: 0

The Review: Earth is yet again the battleground between two alien humanoid races. We must be prime territory -- or (just maybe?) scriptwriters lack imagination. The good guys (escaped from now-exterminated Lorien) once numbered around 18, and look like high-school age hunks (or babes). The bad guys (from Mogadoria, the exterminators) are legion, carry big guns and even larger pets, and look like Clancy Brown's Kurgan (from Highlander) on a very bad day. So much for stacking the deck. And the plot is encoded in the title -- it looks like the Mogadorians are coming after the various survivors one by one, somehow knowing their numeric order -- and guess who's next?

Mediocre pacing -- a jolt at the outset, boring ho-hum small-town stuff in the middle, and some awesome SFX for the inevitable battle scenes. While the small-town stuff unrolls, you get typical teen coming-of-age situations and romantic fluff -- spiced by the revealing of superpowers in the good guys, usually at the most inopportune (or embarrassing) moments.

Not horrible; some decent special effects, occasional tidbits of humor.

On the other hand, beagles rule!

(20-Feb-11)

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