I Am Number Four Blu-ray: Review By Brian Gallagher

I have been a fan of director D.J. Caruso since his first feature, the wonderful and sadly underseen/underrated drama The Salton Sea. I really enjoyed his last feature, Eagle Eye, which was a highly-kinetic, non-stop thrill ride, although the ending was a tad troublesome for me. Oddly enough, Caruso's new movie I Am Number Four, which is based on the novel by Pittacus Lore, has almost the opposite effect of Eagle Eye: The first 80 minutes are rather slow and meandering, but the last 29 minutes are rather awesome.

I Am Number Four centers on a group of aliens from the planet Lorien who flees to Earth to evade mysterious villains named Mogadorians hell-bent on destroying him. There are nine of these alien guardians sent to Earth, although three of them have already been killed by the main Mogadorian baddie, played by the awesome Kevin Durand. Number Four (Alex Pettyfer) is obviously the next in line, and despite the constant warnings from his guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant), Number Four, or "John Smith" as he's known in public, hasn't exactly been keeping a low profile. When a video of him displaying his weird light hands shows up on the internet, Henri and Four are forced to move yet again, this time to Ohio. In search of a normal-esque existence, Four insists on going to high school where he meets the love of his young life, Sarah (Glee hottie Dianna Agron) and also discovers his special talents: his hands light up and he has telekinetic abilities. He also befriends a nerdy kid named Sam (Callan McAullife), who has an interesting connection to Four's kind, and must protect his new BFF's when the Mogadorian's close in, and such.

It's a bit surprising that the story is kind of a mess, since there are three established writers here with Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, along with Mad Men writer/producer Marti Noxon. We get very little back story on actually why these aliens are on Earth, and, even though we get little tiny glimpses of why Number Four has these powers, and what those powers mean, they spend way too much time focusing on this budding romance between Four and Sarah. However, when we get towards the end, seemingly out of nowhere, the action picks up wonderfully, almost as if knowing they had to end strong to try and balance out the middling middle. Despite her prominence in the marketing materials, and the Blu-ray cover, the Number Four's beagle probably has more screen time in this movie than Teresa Palmer does, with tiny little appearances here and there before coming on strong at the end. It seemed they really could have made better use of her time here, instead of just a few glimpses to prove she's in the movie before this big blow-out finale. Still, you have to hand it to this lovely Aussie for making the absolute most of her screen time, including an amazing stunt which you see she actually does in the special features.

Now that I think about it, I shouldn't be too surprised with the story turning out the way it did. In essence, this movie is set up more like a TV pilot than an actual movie. We get all these glimpses of things supposedly to come, only here's the problem: it's a movie, not a TV show. I have no problem with holding some things back, for sequel potential, but there is just so much more that could be done here, especially with a premise like this and a very rich back story from the novel about the alien planet Lorien that is hardly touched on at all here. All three writers do have experience writing for movies, but it seems their TV sides came out in the writing way too much.

D.J. Caruso does a solid job at the helm, like he usually does, bringing out nice performances in Alex Pettyfer, Dianna Agron, Timothy Olyphant and, the few times we see her, Teresa Palmer, and handling the effects and stunts quite nicely. Sadly, I was just taken out of the story too much... by the story... to fully enjoy Caruso's work.

We start off with six Deleted Scenes, which features director D.J. Caruso introducing each scene. The first one is more of an alternate scene, which features both Alex Pettyfer and Jake Abel looking at the pictures Dianna Agron took and posted on her Strangers in Paradise website. In the feature, it's just Pettyfer looking at the photos and this version has both Abel and Pettyfer. The second one is interesting since it features Karen Allen as Sam's (Callan McAullife) mother. It's a cool little scene, although I can see why it was cut, although it's a shame because Karen Allen is great. The next scene is with Alex Pettyfer and Timothy Olyphant after Pettyfer has to hid in the closet at school, where Olyphant tells him about his powers for the first time. Again, a cool scene, but worth cutting. The next scene features Pettyfer testing out his new powers, and playing a prank on Jake Abel's Mark character. It's actually pretty damn funny, but D.J. Caruso explained that he cut it because Pettyfer hadn't quite mastered his powers yet. The next scene features Pettyfer trying to recreate the dinner scene at Dianna Agron's house with Olyphant, and it doesn't quite work out so well. It's another good scene, but also worth cutting. The last scene is an extended scene in the basement which features Kevin Durand dealing with the conspiracy theorist guys and expands on the theatrical version. It's nice because we get more of the awesome Kevin Durand, but the shorter version works just fine also.

Becoming Number Six is next and it delves into Teresa Palmer's character, Number Six. We hear from Palmer herself, director D.J. Caruso, Dianna Agron, Alex Pettyfer and others. We see some of her training, which certainly paid off since her action scenes were really great, especially since she has no experience with these kinds of scenes. It's a great behind-the-scenes glimpse that shows Palmer has quite a work ethic. It's a slick little 12-minute featurette that gives us a nice glimpse behind-the-scenes of this sci-fi adventure. Ironically, though, this 12-minute feature probably equals her amount of screen time in the actual movie.

The last thing we get here are some Bloopers, which are pretty damn funny, especially the stuff from Timothy Olyphant and Kevin Durand, who are just hilarious. There are also some great things with the dog. It's only a few minutes long, but it's a nice, light way to close out these features.

The feature is presented in 1080p high definition, in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

The sound is handled through the DTS-HD MA 5.1 format, 48khz/24-bit. You can also choose between the 2.0 DVS format or the 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound.

The slipcover features Pettyfer, Agron, and Palmer on the front cover with another shot of Palmer walking away from an explosion. I think it's an unwritten movie rule that if you have one of those shots in a movie, it must be on the front cover of the BD/DVD. The back features more shots of Pettyfer, Agron, and Palmer, a synopsis, special features listing, tech specs and billing block.

I Am Number Four is a decent sci-fi flick that suffers from a very, VERY slow start but picks up wonderfully towards the end. While I would have liked more action and less exposition, the bits of action we do get are pretty damn solid. It's just too bad we have to drag through most of the movie to get there. The things I liked in I Am Number Four, I liked a lot, while the same could be said for the things I disliked. The result is an average-to-decent movie that could have been so much better.