I Am Number 4

Title: I Am Number 4 (Movie)

Director: D.J. Caruso

Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Copyright: 2011

Genre: Science Fiction

Age Range: 13+

Watcher’s Annotation: John Smith is the fourth in a line of alien children with amazing powers that is being hunted by the Mogadorians.

Plot Summary: John Smith is an alien from the planet Lorien. To escape the Mogadorians, he and eight others were sent to earth with their guardians. John’s guardian is Henri. They live together in a beachside house in Florida. John is swimming the ocean with a girl when a bright light is emitted from his leg. The message to John is that he is next on the Mogadorians’ hunt for the nine children. They must be killed in sequence. The whole thing is caught on video forcing John and Henri to move to Paradise, Ohio. When packing up, a small lizard sneaks into the truck. When they get to their new home, the lizard sneaks out of the truck to morph into a dog that John adopts and calls Bernie Kosar. The dog is an additional guardian.

            On John’s first day in high school, he runs into Sarah Hart, an amateur photographer, that published bad photos of teachers. She guides him to his first class, and he is smitten. After first period, Mark James introduces himself and upon exiting harasses some of the students. John makes things right. One of the victims, Sam Goode, befriends John. John notices that Sarah is taking pictures of him. John discovers Sarah’s photography site. Henri automatically hacks the site and removes John’s pictures. The Mogadorians discover the old Florida home in ruins. During a school film, John’s hands flare up like his leg in the ocean. Henri explains that these are powers that will grow stronger, but Henri forbids John from using them in public. John sneaks out to the woods to discover what he can do. He walks out to town ad runs into Sarah. They have dinner at her house and later talk about Sarah’s photography.

            When asked about the light from his hands, John says it was a prank. Sam warns John to stay away from Sarah. Their lockers explode with paint from Mark. John barely avoids a fight with Mark. Sam and John talk about Sam’s dad’s disappearance while looking for aliens. John finds out that Sarah and mark use to date at the Spring Fair. Mark and his friends try and beat up John during a haunted hayride. John uses his powers to defend himself and Sarah. Sam sees this and John admits his true origins. The sheriff, Mark’s dad, comes around asking questions and Henri feels they need to leave.

            The Mogadorians locate John and convince two local conspiracy theorists to detain Henri. When John and Sam rescue Henri, the Mogadorians attack. Before escaping the theorists house, John grabs a blue rock that acts as the first half of a tracking device that locates others. The battle continues on the road and Henri dies protecting John. Sam tells John that there is a similar rock in Mexico. John tries to say goodbye to Sarah but is forced by Mark to use his powers to save her. They go to the high school for refuge but are pursued by Mark leading the Mogadorians and two giant beasts. Number Six, another one of the children, and Bernie Kosar show up to defend Sam, John, and Sarah. What will the outcome of the battle be?

Critical Evaluation: I Am Number 4 is a movie adaptation of the book by Pittacus Lore, aka James Frey and Jobie Hughes. It is the first book in the Lorien Legacies. If a library carries these books it would be a good thing to have the movie adaptation. The movie version did very well in the United States and across the world. The book was first published in 2010 and has had a book published every year since. Additionally, there have been many in between stories that have been put out in ebook format. The series seems to have a large fan base and would have a lot of appeal. The story has a male main character and could be considered a high adventure read for boys. Since boys are more reluctant to read, the thought of emerging powers and self discovery is often appealing.

Director’s Information: Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Caruso came west to play tennis and study Television Production at Pepperdine University. Interned at Disney Studios in the Product Placement department and later hooked up with Director John Badham, who mentored him into a second-unit director, after Badham lost his 2nd-unit director Rob Cohen to a first-unit directing career. He hooked up with writer Scott Rosenberg, who penned a short film for him entitled, Cyclops, Baby (1997). The film helped launch Caruso's directing career. Source - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0142286/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Curriculum Ties: Social Science

Challenge Issues: Violence

Movie Talk Ideas: Dread – One could talk about the dread of a school test and transfer that impending doom feeling to the dread John feels as he his hunted within sequence.