Movie Review: I Am Number Four

Warning: May contain spoilers. You've been warned.

(out of four stars)

Believe it or not, I actually read the book prior to seeing the movie. THAT NEVER HAPPENS! Only for Last Song and Harry Potter! Crazy.

The movie was, for the most part, pretty close to the book. However, they did a lot of cropping to make the movie an hour and 44 minutes long. It wasn't bad cropping, it was actually kind of impressive cropping. Basically, they made what was a week or so in the book mushed down into one night. You think that would be terrible, but it really wasn't. They just cropped out the house-burning scene, which I was really looking forward to seeing.

I do feel the movie was rushed. Why they wanted to make it less than two hours long, I don't really know. The movie had a lot more potential for action, characterization, and a deeper story. Don't get me wrong, I still really liked the movie, but the movie so far has flopped with critics and the box office… and I'm just trying to identify what they could have done differently to make it more liked.

I thought the actors were great. I loved Timothy Olyphant. I'm biased to love Dianna Agron. I liked seeing Miss Prissy-Queen-Bee from Glee as the quiet girl in an action movie. But most of all, I really liked Teresa Palmer as Six. Although she is only in the last part of the book, they tried to give her more screen time and I liked that they did. Her character is so fun to me.

Because it flopped at the box office and with the critics, I'm nervous about it's sequel. The book, The Power of Six, is due out in August and so far there's no news of a movie version. With a production budget of $60 million, I Am Number Four has only grossed $90 million worldwide giving them only a $30 million profit. Yes, it's still in theaters, but I don't think it'll hit the $100 million mark. I'm going to remain optimistic. The movie left it open for a sequel, so we'll see.