by: the Moleman
Blu-ray just made Number Six look that much more awesome on my HDTV.
On May 24th Dreamworks released the D.J. Caruso sci-fi action movie I Am Number Four. The movie is about John who is an extraordinary teen, masking his true identity and passing as a typical high school student to elude a deadly enemy seeking to destroy him. Three like him have already been killed … he is Number Four. The script was written by the pair that brought the ever popular Smallville to the small screen, Alfred Gough & Miles Millar. I was torn in my overall review of the movie because for the most part it seemed like it was more of a setup/ pilot movie for a new tv series. The first half of the movie seemed to drag and focused too much on being a teenage lovefest. The second half was all about the action and finally advancing the very story we wanted, not the lovefest. In the end I felt the movie was okay but needed some fine tuning. I actually found myself asking why they hadn’t made I Am Number Six instead. You can listen to our review of the movie on our podcast by clicking here.
The Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy combo pack is a nice buy at $24.99 on Amazon.com ($34.99 at Best Buy). The transfer of the movie to Blu-ray is stunning. It makes the last half of the movie quite enjoyable to watch on any HDTV. The way the Legacies stand out are simply beautiful. Let’s be honest though who cares about the movie when you’re a special features guy? First thing I checked out were the deleted scenes. There were six in all:
- Strangers in Paradise (Extended)
- Sam¹s Mom
- Worth Mentioning
- Power Prank
- Trying to Connect
- Extended Warsaw Basement
Each with an introduction by Director, D.J. Caruso. He does a great job of setting up each of the scenes and explaining why they ultimately decided to drop them from the film. There are definitely some good moments here. The stand out for me was “Sam’s Mom”, a deleted scene which stars Karen Allen.
The Becoming Number Six featurette was a very nice bonus. Considering that the movie left me so intrigued about Number Six, it was nice to have this featurette. There are also some bloopers which are always fun. The Blu-ray menu itself was done really nicely. I like menus that look like they had a lot of work put into them and this is one of those. For the I Am Number Four Blu-ray they created menus to mimick Sarah’s (Dianna Agron) Strangers in Paradise photo website from the movie. It’s cool how the background just keeps shifting as if someone is navigating the website while you’re navigating the Blu-ray menu. Things like that add value in my opinion and help make the Blu-ray/ DVD worth the purchase. Add to that the digital copy and it’s a nice bundle.
Audio wise the Dolby Digital 5.1 sounds amazing, especially for the incredible action sequences in the last half of the film. There are additional audio tracks in both French & Spanish which is always nice. Sub-titles are also added in English, French and Spanish.
Overall this Blu-ray is a nice buy especially if you decided to skip the movie when it was in theaters. Pick your copy up today or add it to your NetFlix Cue.
