5/10
You might expect this curiously-named film to be some sort of sci fi thriller, and although it does become that eventually, for the most part it's a high school romance, borrowed from the school of Twilight. It's also nothing like as bad as I expected.
Alex Pettyfer is Number 4, one of a group of aliens living on Earth in human form, who is being pursued by some bad aliens, for reasons which are never really explained. He and his minder are therefore on the run (rather like Let The Right One In), and wind up in Paradise, Ohio, where they are supposed to keep a low profile. But at the local high school, Pettyfer befriends the school nerd, alienates the school jock, and falls for the school beauty. Which makes him reluctant to leave town when the evil ones show up looking for him.
The initial scenes were unpromising, as the film struggles to establish a credible plot, and fails to do so. But once we arrive in Paradise, things settle down. The hunky hero discovers his superpowers and true love in one fell swoop, and there's no looking back. The last half hour of the film features the obligatory shootouts and special effects sequences, but I didn't mind that; it's part of what you'd expect from this kind of movie. The hero and heroine are appealing enough, and the villains manage to be both menacing and funny - an unusual combination. I don't want to give the impression that this is anything special, but at the risk of damning with faint praise, it's a lot less awful than you might imagine
