I am Number Four

Waited a long time for this after reading the book and yup i finally get to see it not in theater but on the internet and it definitely proved to be a good entertainment under the young adult category where i fall in. 

Anyways whats done is done lets get on with the plot now shall we,

The movie springs up from the book by the same name by the duo James Frey & Jobie Hughes written under the pseudonym of Pittacus Lore who coincidently happens to be a character in the novel but we don't see him on the film. Directed by D.J. Caruso, got to givee it to him, he sure knows a thing or two about finding and cultivating young talent. In 2007, he picked a fresh from Disney Shia Labeouf to headline his Rear Window homage Disturbia, which sent him on a path to super stardom. Now four years later he’s doing the same with British actor Alex Pettyfer who stars as the title character in his sci-fi action flick I Am Number Four.

What’s interesting with this bit of backstory is that Dreamworks bought the film rights to ‘I Am Number Four’ before a final draft was completed of the actual book. They wrote various versions of the script which they shared with Frey who wound up using many of their ‘suggestions’ to put into the final version of the book, so for those who think the film followed the book faithfully, it’s more that the book followed the movie version more faithfully. Interestingly enough, even the ending was Dreamworks idea which wound up becoming incorporated into the final book so having a pseudonym for this book series is smart since it sounds like many hands are in the pot creatively saving Frey more embarrassment of not having written them all himself. 

Let's break it down now shall we,

John/Daniel/Number 4(Alex Pettyfer), a mysterious teenager who is smart, brooding, handsome and athletic but doesn’t fit in at his new school. He and Henri (Timothy Olyphant), who poses as his father but is in reality his alien warrior/ protector, have just landed in Paradise, Ohio. It is a small town where they hope to exist under the radar and evade their enemies, Mogadorians, a group of space assassins in long black coats and deeply scarred and tattooed heads. 

John and Henri constantly change their identities; that’s life on the run. They do their best to appear normal, a tough gig considering that they look perpetually freaked out and behave in a hyper vigilant manner. 

Three other beings like John have been killed and John is Number Four, and will be the next to go in the mythic order of things.  Pettyfer and Olyphant carry it off well.

Back at school, John is bullied, and despite his spectacular physique and mad fighting skills, allows it.  I don’t know I’m buying what they’re selling, but nonetheless this is the position in which he finds himself.  John befriends the perpetual bullying victim Sam (Callan McAuliffe, an Australian who also scores with a Yankee accent) who becomes his warrior in the soon-to come epic battle against the Mogadorians.
 
John meets and falls for Sarah, played by Glee’s Dianna Agron who also doubles as Pettyfer’s real life girlfriend(although there have been recent news that they broke up). Sarah is a loner who obsessively photographs her environment and the people in it. But his opening up to her seems to give him special powers. He can manipulate matter with his powerful, glowing hands.

Sarah puts John in a difficult spot by taking his picture and posting it online.  The Mogadorians are tech savvy (who would have thought) and John knows that if they find his pic online, they’ll be able to locate and kill him.  BTW there is enough texting and internet surfing here to satisfy the most hardened screenager.

Australian actor Theresa Palmer (an Australian who lets her accent fly) arrives on the scene, a sexy super-powered motorcycle mama who reveals herself as Number 6 and a capable fighter.  The battle with the Mogadorians is on.

Alright lets look over some Good & Bad points of the flick:

So Pettyfer and Agron hardly turn in Oscar-worthy performances. They are sufficiently moody, rebellious and moony-eyed to get the point across. Certainly, they’re more believable than Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were in the Twilight installments. Sorry to all those Hardcore fans out there but its true (yes i also like the twilight novels but their chemistry doesn't really appeal to me very much).

Next up on the good point is Olyphant, now none of the characters in this film have any real substance and Olyphant’s Henri is the closest we get to someone likable. The role was previously supposed to go to Sharlto Copley,but Olyphant was definitely the better choice. Not every actor can take cheesy dialogue (more on that below) and make it somewhat tolerable. Then comes the action sequence (that definitely was the best part) Caruso did a great job of directing those scenes because there’s a lot going on but you can actually see what each person is doing. The fights are actually comprehensible. The CGI looks pretty good and the fight choreography is great.

Lets highlight some bad points; first up in line are the few gaping plot holes that have obviously been left open in the hopes of a sequel. Millar and Gough never explain, for example, why the Mogs hunt the kids in order. This one point is such a pivotal storytelling device that it is unforgivable to not explain it. While we’re asking questions, how did the Loriens come to choose Earth as their new home? Why do they look so much like humans, albeit preternaturally attractive ones? Other than surviving, did the nine have a mission?(although yes a lot of these points have also not been addressed in the book, clearly left the more novels to come in the future). Then comes the editing, there are a lot of continuity issues in this film. There are several sequences where people go from point A to C, and they never explain what happened to B. Sometimes that can work and as a viewer you can piece together how someone got to where they were, but that isn’t the case here. It looks like the editor took out chunks of shots to save time and it’s extremely obvious.

So on the whole only Alex Pettyfer and Timothy Olyphant are able to present believable characters  and they should being the ones on whose shoulders the plot rest. A likable teen oriented film that’s contemporary enough to be interesting to the kids, whether they’ve read the book or not. It’s no classic, but it’s fun and an eyeful.

I am Number Four

How much longer than 4 years will 'Glee' cast be in high school?

Social networkers swooned recently when they saw a blog report in which "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy acknowledged that the show's "student" cast members will eventually be too old to play high-schoolers.

The information in the blog post is utterly consistent with what Murphy -- a graduate of Warren Central High School in Indianapolis -- has been say- ing whenever asked about the age issue.

That is, whenever he's not saying that they will never graduate from McKinley High School.

In August, for instance, Murphy was asked at Summer TV Press Tour 2010 how he planned to handle the whole aging actors playing high-schoolers thing.

"We obviously have to deal with the cast and the fact that, you know, the show will hopefully go many, many years," he said. But Murphy also said he had already "mapped out the first four years with our original cast."

"Glee" was unveiled in a single episode in May 2009, but actually launched as a series in the fall of '09. You do the math.

Murphy delivered these comments just a few months after appearing on Oprah Winfrey's show. She asked him what would happen when the cast graduates.

"They never will," he responded. "It's a 10-year high school."

A few weeks after Murphy's press-tour comments, he was asked again whether he would recast the high-schoolers when they started to look too old. That time he said he knew he would have to do it eventually if the show ran many seasons, but that Fox had committed to air the show only through May 2012.

How much longer than 4 years will 'Glee' cast be in high school?

A "Special Education"

GLEE Episode 9 “Special Education” – New Directions grabbed their magic combs and Cadbury eggs and headed to Sectionals on tonight’s episode of Glee. They faced off against The Warblers and The Hipsters and came out on top—well, sort of. But I liked last night’s episode of Glee, a lot actually, and yet somehow I expected more.  I think perhaps it’s because I was expecting New Directions to perform “Dog Days Are Over” at Sectionals, and I really wish they’d had. It’s an awesome song, and I’ve Had the Time of My Life/Valerie just didn’t dazzle me the way the previous Sectionals and Regionals performances have. 

I’ll tell you what I did really love about the episode, though – the emphasis on celebrating talent in New Directions other than Rachel and Finn’s. I don’t usually like shows that are too self-aware, but the theme felt like it had just the right amount of poignancy when it came to the storyline and real life criticisms of the show. There is a lot of talent on Glee, and it is fun to hear everyone sing – not just a Rachel ballad and then a classic rock song that ends with Mercedes belting out a big note. Emma knew that formula was tired and so did the audience, and the way the incorporated the change in song structure into the script was artfully done. (Had Mr. Schu just randomly given Sam, Quinn and Santana solos for Sectionals, it would have seemed pretty odd.)

Not only was Mr. Schu battling the fact that his underdog team had become stale frontrunners, he was also battling the fact that everyone in New Directions was, well, battling. Before we even got to the first commercial break, Santana dropped the bomb that she’d slept with Finn and demolished his relationship with Rachel. Plus everyone had a serious case of me-itis, and only cared about what they would do at Sectionals and what solo they would get. 

This episode was really effective in making Rachel likable again. I know after the first season everyone had kind of had enough of her, and even early in this season I was getting bored with the fact that every single episode seemed to include a Rachel solo ballad. She did “What I Did For Love” in the first episode. Then she did “Baby One More Time” – not a ballad, but another solo. Then she did “Papa Can You hear Me?”, which was excellent but another solo ballad. Then in the fourth episode, “Duets”, things seemed to take a turn. Rachel and Finn  threw the competition, and she later performed a killer duet with Kurt. I love hearing those two sing together. After that she seemed to really take a backseat in the show, and it’s been a nice break. 

This week she shone singing “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” with Kurt (a song she plans to have at her funeral to illustrate how everyone realized how great she was just a little too late), but we also got to see the often hidden likable side to her personality. She had some really adorable moments with Kurt, especially when she told him to smile from the audience during his Sectionals performance and initiated a standing ovation. 

I have to give props to Lea Michele this week, because I think her acting was some of the best we’ve seen. She looked truly crushed when she found out about Finn and Santana, and even more crushed when she told Finn about her brief encounter with Puck. (Which, incidentally, I thought Finn overreacted to a little. It did kind of even them up.)

Onto the Warblers’ arena - When I watched the video of the Warbler’s performance of “Hey Soul Sister” last week (OK, I watched it twice) I wondered why Blaine was doing all the singing, and also assumed that Kurt looked rather glum considering he’s now attending his dream school. (I’d also wondered this with Vocal Adrenaline, who relied entirely on Jesse St. James in their performances.) It turns out that Dalton Academy is rather rigid, likeUtopia. Sure, Kurt is accepted. But he isn’t celebrated. The words “fitting in” are thrown around, but anyone who knows Kurt’s character knows he’s not the kind of kid who wants to fit in. I loved that he had Rachel help him with his audition song (you have to audition for solos there, in front of a panel) and then he was told he’d tried too hard. Perhaps if he’d known they didn’t like that style he wouldn’t have gone to the girl who bursts into tears during every performance for coaching. 

The fact that Kurt probably isn’t going to get a solo or select a song anytime soon suggests that his time with the Warblers will be rather short. But how will he get back to McKinley? What will become of Karofsky? That’s probably a question for the second half of the season, but I’d be shocked if Kurt wasn’t back with New Directions in time for Regionals. How can they go to Nationals in NYC without him?

Here’s a question about Blaine, though – how good are his intentions with Kurt? He told Kurt he needed to be more of a team player, but he’s the only guy in the Warblers that we’ve heard so far. Does he really buy into all this teamwork crap, or is he just trying to keep his own position as apparently the only soloist safe?

Now for one of the bombshells of the episode – Emma and Carl went to Vegas and got hitched. Gah! What the hell? Not only do they have trouble getting together, they keep going and marrying other people! Wrong, wrong, wrong!

How do you guys feel about Emma’s news? Is it just another twist in the series, or are you sick of seeing Will tortured so? Should he continue to pine for her or move on to someone else? (Hello, Idina Menzel and Gwyneth Paltrow.)

To the Sectionals - It was pretty funny to see Puck on the wrong side of a port-a-potty when he tried to recruit a new member for New Directions. He ended up getting Laura, on the condition that he’d give her some out-of-season Cadbury eggs and seven minutes in heaven that allegedly rocked his world. Personally, I’m not a fan of Laura. I find her hostile, and not in a funny way like Santana. 

I was happy to see Mr. Schu yell at the glee kids for a change, since they were all acting like selfish brats. Like I said, though, the Sectionals performances fell a little flat for me. (The two songs not performed for the competition were my favorites from the episode.)

“The Living Years” by The Hipsters was great just because everyone had a walker or cane and the name “The Hipsters” cracks me up. I’d already seen “Hey Soul Sister”, and the song is a little overexposed, but it was a decent performance. 

I didn’t like how Quinn and Sam entered to do “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” the same way Rachel and Finn did for “Faithfully”. They have different voices than Rachel and Finn and I think a different vibe (either more intimate or more fun) would have suited them better. Naya rocked an awesome hat during “Valerie”, but it wasn’t the bombastic closing performance I had expected. I loved the dancing, though.

“The Dog Days” was by far my favorite performance from my night, and possibly one of my favorite Glee covers from this year. It was great to see Tina sing something that didn’t bore me to tears as well, though I might have liked it better if everyone had gotten a line to sing or something. It was nice to see all the kids let loose and have fun.

Thus, on the whole this episode didn’t just focus on one character, so it felt nicely balanced. I still don’t think it quite lived up to last year’s Sectionals episode, though. With Rachel and Finn apart and Will heartbroken, it lacked the joy of last year’s episode. 

Onto next week the last episode of the year "A Very Glee Christmas".

A "Special Education"

An extra dose of Breadsticks with a tinge of "Duets"

After last week's heavily emotional melodrama of Grilled Cheesus which contained an interesting discussion of religion and had a few poignant moments, this week's Duets came as a respite.


On this weeks episode of Glee (“Duets”)  Mr. Schuester challenged the Gleeks to pair up for duets and compete against each other for a dinner at the much-hyped fictional restaurant Breadsticks. Letting the kids pair up was a great, simple plot device because the characters didn’t team up with the obvious choices.

Santana ditched Brittany to pair up with Mercedes, leaving Brittany to court Artie. After much will-they/won’t-they hoo-haw, Quinn and Sam paired up for a duet, which was charming but didn’t blow me away. Kurt stayed true to himself and did a duet with himself. But what about our established couples? They made it interesting because we hadn’t yet ever seen Tina and Mike Chang sing together, and Rachel and Finn decided to throw the competition by singing a really awful song (admittingly the most hilarious part).


Sam (with the platinum Justin Bieber hair) and Quinn won the duet competition, although I don’t understand why Mercedes and Santana didn’t win. Even with Mike Chang’s bad voice, Tina and Mike were more entertaining to watch.


Lets look at some of the Duets we see in through the whole episode:

 

  

 First up we see Rachel and Finn, they did the cutesy thing with “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee and then they sang “With You I’m Born Again” while dressed as a priest and a Catholic schoolgirl(slick). But that aside, I kind of loved how well these two worked together to lose the competition—it was totally cute.

 

 Up next were Mercedes and Santana, the two divas did “River Deep, Mountain High” by another diva, Tina Turner. Santana even did some killer Tina Turner dance moves. Truthfully i don't see how they lost, they did it so perfectly!

Next we see some innovative approach by the one and only Kurt, who performed the duet with himself(very creative). After his father and Finn convince him to back off Sam, he did a solo on “Le Jazz Hot” from Victor/Victoria. It suited him perfectly, but I don’t think he’ll be replacing Julie Andrews anytime soon. I liked it.


Next up after much hesitation are Mike and Tina. Their duet of “Sing” from A Chorus Line was so much fun!Do you think Harry Shum Jr. really can’t sing? Oh well, his dancing skills more than make up for it.

Last of all in the competition and the winners to Breadsticks Sam and Quinn. They were just too adorable on “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat. They might just be my favorite new couple.

Another sub-plot of the episode was between Artie and Brittany. Artie lost his virginity to Brittany, which I totally and most definitely did not see coming. Seducing him for a free dinner with breadsticks was just low, even for Brittany. Although that scene at the end (with her looking longingly at Artie) makes me think she might actually have feelings for him. What do you all think about a possible Artie and Brittany romance?

A Fitting end for the DUETS - Rachel and Kurt did a mash-up of “Get Happy” and “Happy Days are Here Again” with Rachel singing the Barbra Streisand part and Kurt singing the Judy Garland part. I loved this duet much more than any others showed throughout the episode! Rachel was even wearing an outfit inspired by Streisand. It also seems they have made peace between themselves(good thing 'cause divas need to stick together).

Santana and Brittany – When they referred to their hookup last year, it was treated as a joke, so I was really surprised to see them kissing tonight(I was like what the hell). Maybe I’m overreacting, but this scene bugged me. Brittany and Santana being bisexual is treated like no big deal, while Kurt struggles with being the only openly gay dude in their town. It just plays into the stereotype (and male fantasy) that women’s sexuality is more fluid than men’s—the idea that all women are a little bisexual. I think Kurt’s character proves you can’t pick your sexuality…oh wait, I guess you can if you’re a hot cheerleader.

Besides my issues with Brittany and Santana, I really enjoyed this episode of Glee. I liked how Finn, Kurt, and Burt revisited the name calling incident from last season, and they called out Kurt for being so pushy. Kurt has been really angry the past two episodes, but maybe it’s because he’s lonely. It was also good to see more of Quinn, who hasn’t had much to do lately. Puck’s convenient stint in juvy allowed her to spend some one-on-one time with Sam, and I think they are just too cute together. I don’t think Puck is going to be too happy about it, though. There’s definitely some drama ahead for these two.

So what did you think of “Duets?” Does Quinn belong with Sam or Puck? What was your favorite duet of the night? What about this friendship between Rachel and Kurt? Leave a comment below!


Next up on October 26,2010 is the much awaited Rocky Horror Picture Show tribute episode titled "THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW".

An extra dose of Breadsticks with a tinge of "Duets"

Glee Season 2 Premier Party

Some of the pictures from the Glee Season 2 premiere party hosted by Chevrolet.

Glee Season 2 Premier Party