Has any one besides me noticed that the movie I Am Number Four is an almost exact updating of Matthew Star? Alien with superpowers hiding on Earth from alien despots with the aid of a guardian. Almost close enough to be plagarism.
I Am Number Four was a great movie, The Powers Of Matthew Star was complete caca that was illogically written and wasn't credible-a white teenage boy in a small American town is the ward of a big Afro-American man? Even for 1982, that was hard to believe.
EDIT (10/11/2011): BTW, I Am Number Four is based on a series of novels.
Okay, I love the I Am Number Four books but I thought the movie was. . .well, not so great. My friends and I started cracking up in the theater because out of all the unbelievable alien powers that were getting thrown around, the most unbelievable thing of all was the fact that John's iPhone was getting service on the AT&T network in the middle of nowhere.
It was a sci-fi show,and sci-fi shows are generally weird, so what the hell was so weird about it? Who said the ward had to be white,anyway? Hell, the show FRIENDS being set in N.Y. and them not meeting ONE person of color during most of the show was some complete bull**** than anything else!
OP is talking about the concept, not the low standards of 80's writing.
And so what if "I Am Number Four" is based on a series of novels. Can you say with any certainty that the author of the novels wasn't inspired by this show?
---------------------------------------- If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?
I almost thought the same thing, until I started watching Roswell. Just finished season 1 and it was revealed that Max, Isabelle and Michael are royalty. The alien teens in I Am Number Four weren't royalty like Matthew Star, were they? But yeah, all 3 of these shows/movie seem to be using the same damn script. But then again, even Mork & Mindy pretty much used this script by the end of the show's run.
_ Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.
Why? Because alien teens were living among humans.
No, that is not what I was referring to. What I was referring to was in regards to one alien character or characters that lived amongst humans and then all of a sudden there was a rival or bounty hunter type of alien species that was hunting these aliens that was living amongst humans. I wasn't referring to Teens, but you're right. Clark Kent/Superman was eventually hunted by Zod.
_ Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.
reply share
What I was referring to was in regards to one alien character or characters that lived amongst humans and then all of a sudden there was a rival or bounty hunter type of alien species that was hunting these aliens that was living amongst humans.
There aren't that many obstacles that one can invent within a given premise.
That's just a logical progression of a concept of aliens hiding among Earth. The question as to why will eventually rear its head.
Passenger side, lighting the sky Always the first star that I find You're my satellite... reply share
Yeah, but it's very similar to most action movies that for whatever reason ends up being a rescue mission. For example, action movie is going along great, then all of a sudden, one of the characters are kidnapped and then they all have to go rescue this person.
But as you say, "there aren't many obstacles that one can invent within a given premise", but I ask, "why not?" Can't a writer be more creative instead of re-writing what was already written? That's all I was pointing out previously. It's like the same script being used over and over, very formulaic. I can't really think of any original Alien living amongst humans that haven't used this method. Perhaps the only one that comes to mind is Cocoon. I don't recall anyone chasing or trying to kill these aliens.
_ Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.
But as you say, "there aren't many obstacles that one can invent within a given premise", but I ask, "why not?" Can't a writer be more creative instead of re-writing what was already written?
...No. That's what I'm saying. There are only a finite number of obstacles with a given story.
It's like the same script being used over and over, very formulaic.
You're being nit-picky.
I can't really think of any original Alien living amongst humans that haven't used this method.
Like I said, not that many threads to pull from.
Perhaps the only one that comes to mind is Cocoon. I don't recall anyone chasing or trying to kill these aliens.
Because that's a MOVIE and not a book or television SERIES.
Passenger side, lighting the sky Always the first star that I find You're my satellite... reply share