'I Am Number Four'movie review: Alex Pettyfer and Teresa Palmer toil in juvenile drama

WithAlex Pettyfer,Timothy Olyphant. A teen from another planet battles space enemies and bullies. Director:D.J. Caruso(1:50). PG-13: Violence. At area theaters.

Just because a movie is about juveniles doesn't mean it has to be juvenile."American Graffiti"wasn't a juvenile coming-of-age movie, nor was"The Breakfast Club"juvenile in its depiction of high school bonding."Clueless"was a deft social satire, and"Adventureland"a rather mature teen romance.

Ah, but the teenage alien genre— surely that allows for immature clichés. Except this is a time that future pop-culture-ologists will carbon-date as after"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"and"Heroes"departed, but before"X-Men: First Class"opened and"Twilight"concluded.

"I Am Number Four,"with its gangly title, seems like a dimwitted cousin to those hipper properties— a Superman-come-lately tale of puppy love, extraordinary powers and puberty that's duller than a chalkboard and less powerful than an extraneous Jonas brother.

As"Four"opens, a malevolent space squadron is descending to Earth to find and exterminate nine aliens, all masquerading as humans and under the legal drinking age. The baddies, known as Mogadorians, are not a winemaking family, but a vampiric-looking race that decimated the good citizens of the planetLorien. The nine targets are genius Lorien kids who escaped to Earth and scattered. The Mogadorians have turned three of them into dust.

Number Four is a teen (a dull Alex Pettyfer) who senses that his planet-mates have died because he gets glowing circular tattoos on his calf. Hitting the road with his warrior-guardian (a bored-looking Timothy Olyphant), the kid changes his name toJohn Smithand goes to tiny Paradise,Ohio, where he attends yet another school.

In Paradise, he meets the photography-obsessed Sarah ("Glee's"Dianna Agron), tussles with senior high bullies and befriends a geek (Callan McAuliffe). Yet Paradise seems to be the center of some weird UFO activities, and you know what that means: more Mogadorians. Good thing John is just learning how to use his telekinesis, light-shining hands and mega-jumping ability.

Adapted from a gummed-together young-adult fantasy novel byJames FreyandJobie Hughes— writing as Pitticus Lore — Caruso's movie assumes the mere appearance of tough Aussie chick Number Six (Teresa Palmer) will make it cool.

Actually, the only cool part is the appearance of huge monsters the Mogadorians unleash, which helps since the Mogadorians themselves look like rejects with bad makeup from"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."Or whichever show got transmitted to Lorien in the early 1990s.

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