Alex Pettyfer: The Next Big Teen Thing?

You remember how it was. Back in late 2008, a little 'indie' movie called Twilight came out and suddenly, everyone was liking this guy who played a grumpy old vampire. His name? Robert Pattinson. All the teenagers started fainting at the sound of his name, flying to odd places just to stalk him and kissing a poster of him every night before they went to bed...that shit got weird, trust me. This 'teen heart-throb' version of R-Pattz is going to be around for a while until the Twilight saga is finally dead and buried (I'm pretty sure it is now...we just have to wait a while for the last movies to roll around), but who do I think is going to take the cake after that? Alex Pettyfer. He's yet another good-looking British guy who seems to be taking the road to becoming a success for his looks, instead of becoming that serious actor I'm sure he's going to be.

Now, I'm sure that Alex is going to get better at acting in time, but considering everything he has starred in (Stormbreaker, Wild Child, Tormented, I Am Number Four and Beastly), I am fairly certain that it will only take one more film to be the next boy on the poster being kissed by an adolescent teenage girl at 10pm every night. Anyway, why have I chosen to talk about this guy? Because in the past couple of weeks I have watched I Am Number Four and Beastly, both huge Pettyfer vehicles, and both films which many of my 'peers' have been rushing up to rent out since their release.

First, let's take a look at I Am Number Four. This is exactly like Twilight with aliens. Produced by Michael Bay (yes, him) and directed by D.J. Caruso, who has done things like Disturbia and Eagle Eye, I Am Number Four is a loud, explosive, lighty action flick which has the all important teen romance in it. Alex plays a guy who has had to hide his 'gift' for years, because, you know, he's really an alien. This alien moves to a new town and starts a new school, falling for a bullied amateur photographer (Dianna Agron) and getting a bit bullied himself. So that's where we have our first problem. I don't think anyone would ever bully someone of Alex's rather large and totally unnatural stature, and Dianna is far too pretty to ever have people hurt her. Oh well, each to their own, I guess. The bones of the whole story is the fact that old Alex plays 'Number Four'. This is quite troublesome because Number One, Two and Three have all been killed, and he's next. Therefore he is obliged to run around hiding himself from death and get the girl in the end. Kid's stuff, really.

I'm sure I Am Number Four would have been great had it had a better script. The script was really cheesy. It was exactly like watching Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen, except with teenage girls in mind. Apparently, 'we' can watch a movie filled with senseless action sequences and explosions as long it has some cheesy sweet romance in it. Is it weird that I can't like this stuff? I probably would have had it taken it's premise and done amazing things with it. Anyway, it did have a pretty awesome soundtrack and Teresa Palmer was kick-ass as usual. As for Alex...well. Let's just say, if he's applying to be the next Robert Pattinson, then he should submit this film as his audition. He's lifeless, and seems to be going off his looks just to try and get him somewhere. Which makes me think that, even though he's 21, he should probably stop playing teenagers. Because he focuses too much on the brooding aspect of his character's age instead of giving it emotion and heart. I'm sure he'll succeed with more age appropriate character, when he can just play himself.

What I got:

 Beastly is a modern retelling of 'Beauty and the Beast'. I have some huge problems with these 'modern retellings' because they're usually over-sexed and completely lose the point of the original story. The thing with Beastly is that it could really give some people around here a reality check. The movie starts with a montage of Kyle's (Alex) morning routine...which means taking his top off and doing all of these different exercises. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought this was taken straight out of Tony's big introduction in the first episode of Skins. I was pretty dubious of the way the movie would turn out after this introduction, but then Kyle was turned into an ugly monster, which is exactly what he deserved. Of course, as the story goes he has to find true love within a year so the spell can be reversed and he can go back to being a hottie. The love he tries to get is from Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens, of High School Musical fame), who just so happens to be on some most wanted list. Yeah, it's as simple as anything.

Now Beastly isn't a very good movie at all. But I enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than I Am Number Four. I guess I just actually 'got' this one, mainly because I would love to see a few people given the ugly treatment. Anyway, as far as movies go, this one is let down by several things: a slightly cheesy script, a very predictable story and wooden acting. Alex is simply terrible in this movie, showing that he really isn't suited to the romantic lead. Vanessa Hudgens has some talent, but she squanders it here, instead choosing to be the generic teen girl with a bit of romance in her heart. Neil Patrick Harris is really entertaining though, playing a blind tutor. He's really good because he actually chose to wear opaque contacts so he couldn't actually see, making him seem less phony. Anyway, while I thought the movie wasn't that great, I just really enjoyed it. I don't know why, but I just did. Probably because it was only 83 minutes long and moved really fast.

What I got: