In interviews, Frey has openly admitted his desire to create the next Harry Potter series by monkeying slightly with proven formulas; he also acknowledges adding distinctive weapons and jewelry into I Am Number Four entirely to produce marketable spin-off items. The film’s plot feels just as nakedly calculated for profit: It concerns an alien teenager (Alex Pettyfer) with developing superpowers, running from a race of alien warriors who want him dead for some cursorily explained he’s-a-Chosen-One reason. The important part is that he’s hunted, which gives him plenty of chances for flashy special-effects combat, teen angst over his life on the run, and pathos when he falls for an appropriately soulful Earth girl.
There are no vampires in I Am Number Four, but the emotional palette is ripped from Twilight (mope, yearn, glower), and the character dynamics from The Lost Boys: As the new kid in town, Pettyfer falls for Glee’s Dianna Agron; deals with her alpha-male ex and his coterie, who either want to embrace Pettyfer or beat him down; and gets some help from a cringing-but-knowledgeable little-brother figure. D.J. Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye) directs all this with a solid eye for thrilling battle scenes, but with little interest in escaping the cheesy overemotiveness of the script, written by Smallville co-creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and frequent Joss Whedon collaborator Marti Noxon. If anything, Caruso embraces the eye-rolling excess, with characters walking away from explosions in slo-mo, and a pack of hissing, grinning baddies who seem to be channeling the Kurgan from Highlander. Really, everything in I Am Number Four is recognizable from many past films. Frey didn’t really need a ghostwriter for this story, he just needed an archivist with a Xerox machine and a mercenary streak.