March 1, 2011
As noted by Mrs C, this is pretty much Smallville only not quite so plausible or realistic. But despair not, those of you who are grown-up and facing the prospect of being forced by teenage relatives to see it. It is not without its good points, and I have seen it twice now and been fairly well entertained both times. The sources of amusement bear enumeration:
1. Alex Pettyfer's American accent. At last, revenge for Dick van Dyke!
2. Alex Pettyfer generally. Nice to have a male teen hero (yes I know he's actually 21 now) who isn't all glowing and golden and perfect, who looks as if he has occasional skin problems and is unacquainted with moisturiser, and has a proper nose - in short, who though handsome looks not unlike a real person. Plus he's not a vampire.
3. Timothy Olyphant as Number Four's mentor/protector Henri. One for the mums.
4. Teresa Palmer as Number Six - a splendid gun-toting ass-kicking leather-wearing sassy feisty sort of heroine, in marked contrast to the quieter charms of Dianne Agron.
5. Jake Abel as Mark James, football jock and high school bully, all smarmy grin and axe-murderer eyes, he clearly has a great career ahead of him as the bloke who shouldn't be trusted.
6. Absolutely wonderful baddies.
There does seem to be a between-the-lines class conflict hinted at, or perhaps it was unintentional. Our hero is a tormented middle-class teen, who if he hadn't been trying to do an American accent would have instantly been spotted as a public school boy. The baddies, on the other hand, are clearly modelled on a sort of extreme version of good old British Chavs - much tattooed, awful teeth, wearing identical designer clothes and footwear, and complete with appallingly dangerous dogs.
[WARNING: Spoilers might be considered to follow from here.]
The film isn't big on explanations so we aren't told why the Mogadorians feel compelled to travel the planet killing off the survivors of Planet Lorien in numerical order. In the book the numerical order thing is like a protection charm, i.e. they can't be killed out of order, but in the film we must suppose either that the 'Mogs' are obsessive compulsives or (if we buy into my class conflict theory) that they are space-age sans-culottes rounding up the aristos a la Lanterne.
The plot is exceedingly silly, but the details of small-town life in Paradise, Ohio, the thoroughly engaging relationships between the principles, and the excellent sequences of mayhem, do compensate and will successfully stave off boredom for a couple of hours.
1. Alex Pettyfer's American accent. At last, revenge for Dick van Dyke!
2. Alex Pettyfer generally. Nice to have a male teen hero (yes I know he's actually 21 now) who isn't all glowing and golden and perfect, who looks as if he has occasional skin problems and is unacquainted with moisturiser, and has a proper nose - in short, who though handsome looks not unlike a real person. Plus he's not a vampire.
3. Timothy Olyphant as Number Four's mentor/protector Henri. One for the mums.
4. Teresa Palmer as Number Six - a splendid gun-toting ass-kicking leather-wearing sassy feisty sort of heroine, in marked contrast to the quieter charms of Dianne Agron.
5. Jake Abel as Mark James, football jock and high school bully, all smarmy grin and axe-murderer eyes, he clearly has a great career ahead of him as the bloke who shouldn't be trusted.
6. Absolutely wonderful baddies.
There does seem to be a between-the-lines class conflict hinted at, or perhaps it was unintentional. Our hero is a tormented middle-class teen, who if he hadn't been trying to do an American accent would have instantly been spotted as a public school boy. The baddies, on the other hand, are clearly modelled on a sort of extreme version of good old British Chavs - much tattooed, awful teeth, wearing identical designer clothes and footwear, and complete with appallingly dangerous dogs.
[WARNING: Spoilers might be considered to follow from here.]
The film isn't big on explanations so we aren't told why the Mogadorians feel compelled to travel the planet killing off the survivors of Planet Lorien in numerical order. In the book the numerical order thing is like a protection charm, i.e. they can't be killed out of order, but in the film we must suppose either that the 'Mogs' are obsessive compulsives or (if we buy into my class conflict theory) that they are space-age sans-culottes rounding up the aristos a la Lanterne.
The plot is exceedingly silly, but the details of small-town life in Paradise, Ohio, the thoroughly engaging relationships between the principles, and the excellent sequences of mayhem, do compensate and will successfully stave off boredom for a couple of hours.