It's tough to be the new kid. Especially in high school. You gotta find your locker, settle into your classes, figure out the clique system. And if you're emigrating from another solar system, well, the adjustment period can be so much worse.
 Take Number Four, for instance, a transfer student from the planet Lorien. Ever since his homeland was destroyed by the murderous Mogadorians, Four has majored in survival. He's hiding out—like the rest of Lorien's stragglish survivors—on a backwater planet called Earth, hopping from town to town just to stay alive. "We are the last of our kind," he solemnly tells us. And the Mogadorians, who can't stand to leave a job undone, are aiming to finish their brutal liquidation project.
But there's a catch.
For some inexplicable reason, Number Four and his eight cohorts—considerately named One through Nine—must be killed in order. Perhaps that's because the Mogadorians suffer from some sort of collective obsessive-compulsive disorder. Whatever the reason, we're not told. Nor are we told why Four's parents simply didn't name him something different, like James or Clyde. (Or, if he had to be named after a number, why it couldn't have been 15,942.) All we know is that Mogadorians have offed numbers One through Three, and Number Four's up next.
Trying to stay a step or two ahead of death, Four and his guardian, Henri, arrive at the hamlet of Paradise, Ohio, and settle in for what they hope will be a long, quiet stay. While Henri concentrates on turning their farmhouse into a quasi-fortress, Number Four gets to know the locals. He enrolls at the town's high school as "John Smith." He makes friends with Sam (a science geek with a penchant for UFOs) and turns his smoldering good looks on Sarah (ex-girlfriend of Paradise's resident jock jerk). Slowly, "John" realizes he kinda likes it here. Paradise may not be Lorien, but it's beginning to feel like home.
But just when he's starting to get it all together, Four—er, John—starts going through the Lorien version of puberty. Instead of pimples, John deals with strange lights shooting out of his hands. (Awkward!) Instead of struggling with a cracking voice, he discovers he can manipulate objects with his mind. (Weird!) It takes some time, of course, before he can learn to harness all these emerging powers appropriately, and thus avoid showcasing his flashlight hands in the middle of algebra.
Time, however, is a luxury John doesn't have, because the dreaded Mogadorians are determined to cross his number off their interstellar hit list.
:: Review
I Am Number Four, based on a young-adult novel of the same name by Pittacus Lore (a pseudonym for authors James Frey and Jobie Hughes), is exactly what you'd expect it to be: a flyaway diversion that can be forgotten as quickly as it is consumed. Superspecial teens with cool powers use their abilities to ward off evil. And, with Frey and Hughes reportedly planning to write five more Number books, DreamWorks hopes it has a franchise on its hands.
That's not an altogether horrible aspiration. If we take I Am Number Four as a rumination on the lessons of growing up, we've gotta like some of the messages in play here. Specifically, that maturity is more about making mature decisions, less about engaging in "adult" behavior. For John, growing up means accepting his responsibilities, not being able to buy beer legally.
If only the film itself were equally responsible. I Am Number Four knows that its target audience—young teens—is far more interested in aliens, explosions and shirtless hunks than any sort of profound lessons on the nature of maturity. Think of it as Harry Potter meets Percy Jackson meets Twilight meets Independence Day meets The X-Files meets World Wrestling Entertainment.
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