Book first: The story of I Am Number Four revolves around Number Four, current alias John Smith. John is an alien from the planet Lorien, which was destroyed several years ago by the Mogodorians. John and his guardian Henri, along with 8 other children and their guardians, escaped to Earth. However, the Mogodorians know they are on Earth and are searching for them. The nine children have a protective charm that prevents them from being killed except in numerical order. At the opening of this book, Number Three has just been killed. And John is Number Four. John and Henri have spent their life on the run, and John has tried to keep a low profile. But they have just moved to a new place, and John has started a new school, and there is this girl...
There's a lot more to it than that, but I'm trying to summarize! But hopefully I've said enough to get you interested. Now for the good and the bad: The whole concept of this story was really interesting. A teenage alien learning to use his superpowers while navigating the horrors of high school, and oh yeah he's also being hunted by the evil aliens who destroyed his planet. Very cool. I realize that I may have seemed sarcastic just then, but I'm being serious. It was cool. And the plot panned out well, full of excitement, mystery, love, and a whole lot of action and suspense. I had a hard time putting it down.
That being said, don't go into it expecting some amazing work of literature. It is lacking a little bit in the description department. It's all fast-paced action, rather than thoughtful introspection. But, that's not really always a bad thing, is it? Besides, it is classified as Grade 7 and up, and I think most 7th graders would love it.
And now for my thoughts on the movie: I liked it.
Okay okay, so I'll say a little more than that, since the majority of you are probably more interested in the movie than the book anyway. The premise of the movie is the same as the book. The movie follows the book pretty well, as far as book-to-movie things go. They did have to take a lot of stuff out, but that's to be expected.
It's really hard for me to say if the movie was good, because since I had just read the book, I couldn't help but sit there and think things like "That's not what happened in the book!" Also, I knew a lot of extra stuff and back story that didn't make it into the movie, so it's hard for me to say if I would have liked it if I didn't already know those things.
But, for what it's worth, I did enjoy the movie. And all three of the people I was with said they really liked it too, and they hadn't read the book. So I guess I would say it's worth watching... and reading!
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