I haven't watched a film for a while, so when I was in the library this morning with Harry, I decided I would get a film for me and daddy2harry to watch over the boring weekend, especially because the television at the moment is so rubbish at night. I had a good browse at the selection and in the end selected Jumper, which the librarian confirmed to me was a good watch. So I was disappointed to hear daddy2harry say he had no interest in watching it at all, so I watched it this arvo when Harry was having a nap.
Jumper is about a young man named David Rice who in his teenage years discovers that he seems to have some sort of ability which allows him to teleport wherever and whenever he wants to. As an adult, he has control of this power and is making the most of it, stealing money from banks to live on etc. But his world is shaken when he is targeted by the Paladins, a group of vigilantes wanting to wipe out all Jumpers from the world. David is thrown into a war he didn't know existed and meets some interesting people along the way...
Being a sci-fi movie, I realise that this isn't
supposed to be realistic or believable in anyway, and sometimes it is nice to watch something that's going to be a bit escapist. This film for me really delivered on that front - it's enjoyable, a tad silly and quite exciting throughout so I was pretty pleased about that. The premise of someone being able to teleport around at will is quite intriguing, and I wouldn't mind that ability myself to tell you the truth. It's well handled in this film, and the first few scenes of David discovering his power are fantastically done.
It was some of the visuals that made the movie a great watch for me. All of the scenes where David and Griffin (another Jumper) were jumping all around, from across the world even just to the other side of the room, were pretty amazing and exciting to watch. The people behind the scenes have done a great job with the animation on this, and the jumping is seamless and quite amazing to watch! The whoosing sounds as they jump about just emphasise the action and make you aware of the jumping, and when you put it altogether, the whole thing onscreen is pretty spectacular.
The other most important part of a film is of course its cast. The main jumper and 'hero' of the film David is played by Hayden Christensen. I haven't actually seen this young man in anything before but I felt he was distincly average in this film and totally outshone by his co-star Jamie Bell. Christensen seemed to take it all too seriously for me and didn't let go enough, he didn't seem to be fully enjoying himself as you should when filming this sort of movie. In antithesis, young Englishman Jamie Bell was phenomenal as Griffin, the other Jumper determined to win the war. Jamie totally dominated all scenes he was in, he was funny, watchable and really threw himself totally into his role. A joy to watch and a very successful venture into the big screen for Bell.
Rachel Bilson, previously of The OC fame tries her hand at a blockbuster playing David's schoolfriend Millie. This has to be the worst performance of the whole movie, Bilson adds absolutely no value to the film at all and I think a cardboard cutout would have been just as good. I didn't like the whole storyline surrounding her and felt it really detracted from the main story which may be part of the reason I didn't like her, but I just found her incredibly poor, especially compared to the talent of young Bell. Finally Samuel L Jackson plays the vigilante Ronald, the man intent on killing all of the Jumpers. It's definitely not his best performance but it is an okay one which delivers on the role in an average fashion.
My main problem with this film is the totally unnecessary inclusion of a silly love story within the main story itself. I felt it really took away from the power and strength of the main plot, and was totally pointless. It didn't fit properly, it seemed out of place, and the lack of chemistry between Christensen and Bilson made an already painful plotline even worse. Without that, I feel the film could have elaborated much more on the war between the Jumpers and the Paladins, as I don't think was explained well enough at all. If this had been explored more, I would have actually cared about the Jumpers winning, but because I didn't understand why they were at war, I wasn't actually bothered either way.
Overall, this is a watchable and enjoyable movie that manages to pass its 88 minutes with relative ease. It does seek to give the Wow factor with its Jumping scenes, and action sequences which were actually pretty good, but the whole thing is ruined by that silly sub plot through the movie and the somewhat lacklustre and disappointing performances of Bilson and Christensen. I would have much preferred to see Bell in the lead role and I felt his passion would have translated much better to the viewer. It's a good watch, but nothing incredibly memorable.
Written by David Goyer and Jim Uhls, and Directed by Doug Liman. Released in the UK in February 2008. The DVD is available on Amazon for £12.98, cheaper from online rental services of course. Certificate: 15. Running time: 88 minutes.
Main Cast: Hayden Christensen ... David Rice Jamie Bell ... Griffin Rachel Bilson ... Millie Harris Diane Lane ... Mary Rice Samuel L. Jackson ... Roland Michael Rooker ... William Rice
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Science Fiction - Director: Hiroyuki Yamaga - Original Language: Japanese - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Ayako Kawasumi, Fujiko Takimoto
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
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Advantages: Special effects, camerawork, Jamie Bell and Samuel L Jackson Disadvantages: Davids character seemed lacking, the story is rather weak, pretty unmemorable fare overall
IzzyS 04.01.2009 (04.01.2009)
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Review of Jumper (DVD)
![Jumper [DVD] [2008] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/69769299.jpg "Jumper [DVD] [2008] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]")
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Sep 14th, 2008
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