Plot: What’s it about?
When Jerry Bruckheimer’s name is adorned on a box or flashes across the screen, people tend to take notice. And why shouldn’t they? The guy has had his name associated with nearly every commercial, big budget film in the last 25 years. I’m talking “Top Gun”, “The Rock”, “Armageddon”, “Pearl Harbor” and all four “Pirates of the Caribbean” films. And he’s into TV as well, with “The Amazing Race” and “C.S.I.” to his credit as well. So it’s with no big surprise that when ads for “I Am Number Four” started airing, it raised an eyebrow or two. Now the guy can’t make everything a hit and judging by the box office for this movie, that rings true. Still, he seems to know what the public wants and we’ll get it regardless if we like it or not. Onto the movie. I don’t really know the back story, though it rings of having comic book-oriented roots. Let’s dive in and see what it’s all about, shall we?
John (Alex Pettyfer) is an alien. He and 8 others are from a different planet and they alone are gifted with supernatural abilities. But the thing is that they’re being stalked and killed by Mogadorians. Being that there are nine total, John is, by process of deduction, number four. Is your brain challenged yet? We follow John and his protector, Henri (Timothy Olyphant) as they move from town to town whenever the Mogs get one step closer. John isn’t too happy about this as he wants to live the life of a normal teen. Their latest stop is Paradise, Ohio where John immediately meets Sarah (Dianna Agron from TV’s “Glee”). Of course Sarah has broken up with the school patriarch/bully Mark (Jake Abel), so John has a long road in front of him. All of that takes a backseat because…the Mogs are getting closer! Will even the appearance of number six (Teresa Palmer) help defeat them or are the nine destined to extinction?
“I Am Number Four” is mindless action if there ever was such a thing. Yes, I guess it’s pretty cool to see a guys hands glow and move objects with his powers. Ok, it’s neat to see a hot blonde girl teleport and kill aliens, but aside from that…well ok I actually enjoyed it. And that’s the thing about a Jerry Bruckheimer film. He seems to incorporate something that the masses will like. Granted it won’t win any awards for acting, but then again it’s not supposed to. There’s enough action to keep the average viewer entertained and though I doubt I’ll watch the movie again anytime soon, it’ll still remain on my shelf. Without giving too much away, I will say that there could certainly be a sequel, though given the box office that the movie took in, that might not happen. Then again we do live in a world where stranger things have happened.
Video: How does it look?
Visually “I Am Number Four” delivers as I figured it would. I was a bit surprised at the 1.85:1 AVC HD transfer as I’d expected this to be shot with a wider scope, but hey it’s nice to have a picture fill my entire screen every once in a while. The image as about as pristine as they get. Detail is amazing as we can see every grey hair on Timothy Olyphant’s head, the porcelain skin of Dianna Agron and the fine “laser” like energy that emits from “John’s” hands throughout. Contrast is strong as are black levels. Take a look at the Mog’s facial features and you can see the gills on their face open and close. This is a treat to watch on Blu-ray regardless of how you feel about the film.
Audio: How does it sound?
Another staple in any Bruckheimer film is that it will more often than not sound very good. This is certainly no exception as we get a very robust DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack. There’s a surprising amount of dialogue as I’d expected all mindless action. Kudos to you, filmmakers! However the third act does contain the lion’s share of the action and coupled with that, we get the best sound as well. Surrounds are active, LFE come into play and the front stage is very busy with all that’s going on. Suffice it to say that this one will be kind to your system, so crank it up.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This three disc set is a bit misleading when it comes to extras. Most three disc sets pile on the supplements like they’re going out style. That’s not so much the case here. We do get several deleted scenes with optional commentary by director D.J. Caruso and a way too informative segment on “Becoming Number Six” with Teresa Palmer as she goes through the arduous process of getting into shape to become the ass-kicking Number Six. There are also some bloopers. Yep, that’s it. There’s a standard DVD of the film on disc two (or maybe it’s disc three) and the remaining disc is a digital copy of the film.
