I Am Number Four

This is one of the movies that missed out earlier this year. One of the 8 or 9 movie release weekends which I simply could not get my arms around all through 2011. Hope 2012 is not as packed. On hindsight which coincidentally everyone is @ 20/20 levels, I don’t quite regret having missed I Am Number Four on the big screen. I picked up the book a couple of weeks back and finished reading it last afternoon. Picked the DVD over the weekend because I wanted to watch it immediately after finishing the book yesterday. The book by Pittacus Lore (I am sure that’s an anagram for something. Need to research it) is a fantasy which is not the best written super hero / fantasy piece ever. But to its credit, it is well paced, doesn’t take too much time to build up and is never short of excitement. Quite entertaining in short. And therefore, I was hoping that the movie will turn out to be a reasonably entertaining flick. Not to be.

We are talking about a planet called Lorien which has been destroyed by another civilization called The Mogadarians – Mogs for short. The Mogs have a simple funda – they pick a planet and drain it off all the resources. Once done, they move to the next planet. This planet hopping gets them to Lorien and the ensuing war results in the latter getting obliterated. However, 9 children have been saved along with their guardians and some animals – something like Noah’s Ark – and sent to…no points for guessing – EARTH (as if there was a paucity of planets). And thankfully they are spread across various locations on the planet. They are in hiding so that they can grow into strong Loriens one day and claims their planet back. The Mogs, however, have other plans. They are chasing the Loriens down to ensure no one is left over. The thing is that they cannot kill them at random. Thanks to a Loric spell, they have to kill them in a serial order. 3 have been killed to date over the past 6 years. Our hero is Number 4.

I have nothing against fantasia. In fact, you will notice through my writings that I love it. What cheeses me off is a weak attempt to get a super hero movie to life. There has been absolutely no emphasis on the background story from Lorien. The story has been changed in the second half. The Mogs have been reduced to a bunch of ugly looking gangsters who have gills to breath. The Mog soldier with his flashy, colourful, magical sword doesn’t exist in the movie. There is no emphasis whatsoever on #4s training. Add to that, performances which were barely average. Direction was barely OK.

What is that old saying – Never judge a movie by its book? 2 movies over the weekend which were based on works of fiction. One Day – I haven’t read but I am eagerly looking forward to getting my hands on because the story was quite good. IANF – wasted investment in both book and movie I guess. And yes – a sequel is in the offing – smart thinking but remains to be seen how it is executed. Thank God the DVD was priced @ a 40% discount. 4 on10 for the movie.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2997656345/