This is a bit late, but a few weekends ago (when the movie came out) I saw "I Am Number Four" — yes, Alex Pettyfer is on FIRE. Two book to movie films in less than a month! I reviewed "Beastly " earlier this week also starring Pettyfer based on the book by Alex Flinn. Last August I reviewed "I Am Number Four " by Pittacus Lore. It was the first book I did a book talk of in my classroom and when I loaned out my precious signed ARC, one kid later it had bite marks, torn covers, and dog eared pages. Needless to say it came out of my classroom. I have since loaned it to family friends and coworkers and let's just say this: you can tell the book has been loved. I am DYING to get my hands on the next book, "The Power of Six" (August 23, 2011), and am hoping to score a copy at BEA.
Unfortunately (ugh, I hate starting like this) — if you haven't read the book yet I wouldn't advise seeing this movie. We all know that movies leave out loads of details from the book, but seeing this movie without first reading the book will, I think, leave viewers completely in the dark. Last week in class two students summed it up perfectly: "it lacked plot." I asked them if they'd read the book and they said no. Without the back story that the book provides, the movie is confusing and the plot falls flat. They only mention in passing at the very beginning of the movie that they are being "hunted down one by one" but it is never explained that it has to be in order and that once Six found Four all bets were off. All of Lorien was left out and Pittacus Lore was never even mentioned. So, please, if you haven't read the book — read it before you see the movie. You'll save yourself a headache.
That aside, as I have read the book, I was able to follow the extremely (almost too) fast paced film. I was able to fill in the left out details and as a result the plot wasn't lacking. Even with the fantastic plot, the characters were lacking a bit for me. Now I'm not one of those people who can't separate books from movies. I am able to view both forms of media as two different entities with the same story. I am not noe of those people who will let a movie "ruin the book" for me. So without comparing my connection with the characters while reading the book, I felt like the character development was extremely lacking. The only character I felt any emotion toward was Number Four. Some of it was bad acting but not always. For instance, Dianna Argon did a great job but I'm still weary of Sarah. I can't place it, but I just don't trust the girl. I was extremely disappointed with Henri; one of my favorite characters in the book and I felt no emotion toward him at all. I was also disappointed with Sam, the nerdy best friend. I just wasn't impressed with most of the characters in the movie.
Although, I will say this: I liked the movie version of Number Six much more than the book! Wow! This girls' got... uh... balls? And, does this face look familiar? Percy Jackson anyone!
The scene I was most looking forward to was the "Haunted Forest" scene and it was perfect. It was exactly how I had envisioned it. It was also great to see the ending — again — how I had envisioned it while reading the book. The dog was perfect as were the Mogadorians were great too.
Overall, this is a great movie (as I had read the book) but I wouldn't recommend it to "standard" movie goers. Take my advice. Read the book — it's fantastic and then see this movie! The two together are a story worth knowing.
I could be completely wrong too — Anna over at Anna Read's loved the movie without reading the book.