Extras:
Audio commentary, Featurettes: Jumping from Novel to Film, Making An Actor Jump;
Previz: Future Concepts
Director:
Doug Liman
Producers:
Lucas Foster, Simon Kinberg, Arnon Milchan and Jay Sanders
Screenplay:
Simon Kinberg, Jim Uhls & David S. Goyer
(based on a novel by Steven Gould)
Music:
John Powell
Cast:
David Rice: Hayden Christensen
Millie Harris: Rachel Bilson
Roland Cox: Samuel L. Jackson
Griffin: Jamie Bell
William Rice: Michael Rooker
Mary Rice: Diane Lane
Mark Kobold: Teddy Dunn
David Rice, teenager: Max Thieriot
Millie Harris, teenager: AnnaSophia Robb
Sophie: Kristen Stewart
A young man discovers he has the power of teleportation, but finds himself caught up in a centuries-old battle against those fearful of "jumpers"...
I feel a bit sorry for director Doug Liman; his debut Swingers
was cult-cool, follow-up
Go
was entertaining but nobody saw it, his
Bourne Identity
only became a phenomenon with its superior sequels, Brad Pitt and Angelina
Jolie's real-life romance overshadowed the fun of spy-action
Mr & Mrs Smith,
and now Jumper has been branded a listless bore by most critics...
And it's true; the high-concept Jumper is his weakest film. But it's visually
a treat and provides 90-minutes of superficial whiz-bang entertainment, thanks
to a mythology that unspools at a careful lick, and a teleportation effect
that's more exciting than you'd expect. Hayden Christensen
(Star Wars Episode II & III) plays David Rice, a young man who discovered he
could teleport after falling into an icy lake and, with his life threatened,
transporting himself to the local library with a splash...
After getting a handle on his new-found powers, David leaves his abusive father
(Michael Rooker) for a life of crime (stealing cash from locked bank
vaults), becoming accustomed to his bachelor lifestyle of ill-gotten luxury --
flitting from his playboy apartment to stand on the face of Big Ben, or take
in the sights atop the Sphinx.
It's a life of no physical limitations, but David
soon discovers there are other "jumpers" around -- like roguish Griffin (Jamie Bell),
who introduces him to "the war" between jumpers and Paladin (killjoy assassins,
led by Samuel L. Jackson's Roland, who believe jumpers are abominations
because only God can be "everywhere at once"). Apparently, nobody has informed
the Paladin that jumpers can't "be in all places at all times", actually --
but, hey...
Throw in a girlfriend unaware of David's secret, The OC's Rachel Bilson
as Millie Harris, and the stage is set for a fairly predictable sci-fi chase
movie. The film has plenty of problems, particularly the lack of development
for any of its characters. David's the hero, Griffin's the mentor, Roland's the
villain, Millie's the damsel-in-distress. The actors all struggle to breathe
life or depth into these archetypes, but only Bell rises above the material
thanks to an enjoyable swagger and northern accent you don't often hear in
big US movies.
Christensen is less wooden than when portraying Anakin Skywalker (the absence
of a George Lucas script will do that), but he's a handsome puppet Liman manipulates
throughout the film, and never a three-dimensional person. There's the inference
of paternal abuse in David's history, but it's never developed into anything interesting,
because the film is more interested in the simple cat-and-mouse thrills. A
sub-plot about the mystery surrounding his absent mother (Diane Lane) is
intermittently returned to, but only really exists to set-up a sequel in the
dying minutes.
Samuel L. Jackson is what you'd expect: grizzled, determined, white-haired(?),
and handling the action better than he did in Star Wars. Roland's a simple
creation, who doesn't even have a personal issue with jumpers or any of the
characters. He's just the face of a vague secret society that have been tracking
and slaughtering jumpers for centuries -- and questions about why God would
continue to allow these "abominations" to be born, are left unasked. I mean,
why should the Paladin question the sanctity of their crusade in this movie,
when there's so much time for electrified-lasso action -- hm?
Bilson's kinda cute, but she's not a great actress. I wasn't aware of her
breakthrough role in TV's The OC, just her guest-starring role in a few
episodes of TV's Chuck, but she's clearly a good-looking girl who's cast for
her diminutive, easygoing sex-appeal. There's a slither of chemistry between
Bilson and Christensen, but not enough to get excited about, or provide an
emotional connection when Millie is inevitably captured by Roland and used as
bait.
The one truly successful aspect of Jumper is its teleportation effect, with
the jumpers often dragging surroundings from one location to the next (usually
water) and causing seismic tremors. The internal logic isn't always clear, as
sometimes David jumps around in his apartment with no problems, and only
sometimes causes localized damage. I think it has something to do with his
mental state (he trashes a hospital when trying to save his father's life),
but it's not made clear.
Also, we're told jumpers can only travel to places they've been, can see,
can visualize through a photo, or by sneaking through another jumper's
spatial "jump scar" -- but that doesn't explain how Griffin is able to tail
David around the world, at times.
Still, the rules regarding jumps are drip-fed throughout the film nicely,
helping to sustain interest as another limitation or danger is explained through
David's self-experimentation or Griffin's words of experience.
Doug Liman directs the action well -- particularly a central fight in Rome's
Coliseum between efficient Griffin, out-of-his-depth David and two professional
Paladin armed with high-tech weaponry to neutralize jumpers. Other than that,
nothing really stands out, although there are plenty of visually-appealing scenes
demonstrating the jump-effect -- like a sports car ride through Tokyo and a
climactic grapple with Roland through jump-scars...
Overall, Jumper should have been so much more. Steven Gould's 1992 novel is
decent source material for a movie, while Jim Uhls (Fight Club) and David
Goyer (Batman Begins) worked on the script before Simon Kinberg (X-Men III)
arrived to polish it. It seems strange that the writer of
xXx
was tasked with improving the work of Uhls and Goyer, but at some stage the
storyline lost its punch and became inconsistent -- leaving the completed film
to trade heavily on admittedly-excellent FX.
While certainly watchable and diverting on quite a few occasions, there's not
much substance to sink your teeth into and the characters don't leap off the
screen. Jumper's a good idea, successful in the technical execution of its
teleporting, but hamstrung by uninteresting performances and a plot that doesn't
have much to show you beyond a few diverting action set-pieces.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
DVD: 
