Jumper

Introduction

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, er no, scrap that…

A long time ago in the decade of flares and glam rock, there was a series called The Tomorrow People about a group of special youngsters who had the power to 'jaunt' or teleport to different places. The Tomorrow People used a snazzy belt to do this, but they're now obsolete as humankind has now evolved again, and the Jumpers are here. Jumpers are people who have a natural ability to teleport anywhere in the world…


David (Hayden Christensen) discovers his amazing ability when he's actually younger and someone else (Max Thieriot). Attempting to get in with his secret crush Millie (Rachel Bilson), who bizarrely doesn't have a younger stand-in, David falls though the ice and looks as if he'll drown when he suddenly finds himself in the local library, along with a couple of gallons of icy lake water (but oddly, no fish or other wildlife). It appears that David has the ability to jump, and he uses this ability to not only escape from his alcoholic father (Michael Rooker) but also to teleport into the nearest bank vault and steal enough money to fund himself a nice lifestyle in a swanky apartment in New York.

Still, the hulking mass of prime acting ability can't forget his High School sweetheart who never was, and goes back to woo her. Taking her to Rome via conventional means, he comes across a group called the Paladins, whose chief troubleshooter is a white haired dude named Roland (Samuel L Jackson), I always wondered what he got up to after Fine Young Cannibals split… It turns out that the Paladins don't like Jumpers very much and like to kill them pretty much, after trapping them with their Achilles heel - electricity. David also finds a reluctant ally in fellow jumper Griffin (Jamie Bell), and he'll need him shortly when Roland kidnaps Millie…

Visual

Picture is nice and sharp as you might expect from a recent big action film. Some of Barry Peterson's cinematography is breathtaking, but it's hard to know sometimes exactly what are real shots and what are effects sometimes. Still, a lot of the special effects are pretty good, although it gets into overload territory on several occasions. You should know that the list of visual and special effects people listed on iMDB far outstrip the cast and the rest of the production staff…

Audio

Main soundtrack is in 5.1 and there's also an English descriptive audio soundtrack that is a little bizarre if you've never heard one before, like me. There are English HoH subtitles.

Extras

Jumpstart: David's Story - this extra is an animated graphic novel approach which very basic animation, and frankly makes as much sense as the film does.

Overall

On paper this probably sounded like a good idea. Sadly, it wasn't. There are a number of things wrong with this film:

1. Hayden Christensen is not a leading man, the Studio should have stuck with Tom Sturridge
2. Jamie Bell would have been fine if not saddled with an accent that varies between an attempt at Irish and Cockney, he's easily the best thing about this
3. Samuel L.Jackson is a good actor and is capable of much much than generic bad guy with white hairdo
4. There's apparently a war going on between the Paladins and the Jumpers, why does the story virtually forget about this?
5. Why is it that jumping from a lake to a library brings a ton of water with him and jumping into an A&E ward or apartment creates serious damage, but jumping onto the Sphinx causes no damage at all?
6. Why bother with the 'rule' about not being able to jump with a solid object only to ignore it as part of the big final confrontation - and no Christensen is not 'special'…
7. Talking of the rules, who actually decided them and just how does a jumper judge to the precise measurement where he's jumped previously? Does he have to remember or does his ability adjust automatically? It's a stupid rule, especially when both Bell and Christensen jump several times to the same places
8. If Christensen's mother left when he was five after his first jump, why did he not remember it and why the huge gap until his ability manifested again?
9. It helps the audience if you actually do some character development so we actually give a monkeys about the main characters
10. Just to add to the last point, it really helps if your main character isn't a selfish twat with no redeeming human qualities at all, who is only ever in it for himself as amply demonstrated throughout other than when he needs to rescue his girlfriend
11. Oh, and you're going to use the long-standing war between Paladins and Jumpers as part of your hype for this film, use it as something other than a throwaway exposition point that is never explored further


There was a story here that could have been interesting and probably quite good.

This wasn't it.