One of the most forgettable teen fantasy movies of the 2010s had to have been D.J. Caruso’s would-be franchise starter, I Am Number Four. In the wake of the Twilight series, Hollywood was high on teen fantasy (a genre that has now mostly been consigned to streaming), and this promised to be a doozy. It was based on a series of young adult fantasy novels called The Lorien Legacies, which were written by an author named Pittacus Lore, who, turned out to be a pseudonym for disgraced author James Frey (among others), whose career flamed out once it was revealed that his addiction memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was largely fabricated.

However, in this pre-cancellation era, Frey’s fall from grace was quickly forgiven by Hollywood, who sensed this could be the next huge franchise. A young actor named Alex Pettyfer, who Hollywood was hot on at the time,...