Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

Starring: Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Samuel L Jackson, Rachel Bilson
Directed by: Doug Liman

David Rice (Christensen) discovers he has the ability to “Jump” anywhere in the world in an instant. After getting some money together he sets out on a life of leisure until he discovers that Jumpers like him are in the midst of a war that has been raging for hundreds of years. Paladins, religious fanatics who believe that only god should have this power, set out to wipe the Jumpers off the planet. Now he must fight in order to save, not only his own life, but the lives of his loved ones.

I first heard of Jumper some months ago and was instantly drawn to the premise. I mean, who wouldn’t be? To be able to do what the characters in the movie do is an ultimate dream for any human; complete and ultimate escapism. The ability to be anywhere you want, instantly. The concept of the film is a great one in my opinion and it could easily set in motion a decent franchise. Doug Liman’s direction was very accomplished and the visual effects were really pretty good. It’s not something we’ve seen before so finding a benchmark is difficult. The closest thing to it has to be Nightcrawler in X-men 2. Acting could have been better, Hayden Christensen didn’t get the name Manakin Skywalker for nothing. He clearly graduated the Ben Affleck school of wooden acting with honours. Jamie Bell, however, was very likable even though his character was a bit of an ass hole. He has a certain charm that carries through the film. Samuel L Jackson’s character is OK but Jackson himself bores me. The man must make 30 movies a year! Take a vacation Sam, or your hair will be like that in real life!

My main complaint however, is that the writers and to a certain extent the director, have taken what is a superb premise and the foundations for an epic story and wasted it on a very isolated set of characters and a bad choice for a leading man. I would have liked to have been given more insight into the reasons why the Paladins sought to kill all Jumpers other than the rather flaky religious jealousy. There was scope for the history of the two groups to be much deeper and a whole lot darker. Also I’d have liked to have seen more Jumpers. The two that were in the film shared too many similarities and didn’t offer a good enough insight into the battle between Jumpers and Paladins. But hey, you never know. Like I said before this movie could be the start of a very interesting franchise.

So in closing, Jumper isn’t a bad film… it’s just not a great one, and it could have been. So often do we see big stars and great direction wasted on a premise that is utterly ridiculous and not worth their time. Typical, then, that the one time we see an awesome premise, it gets squandered on a feeble story and a dodgy cast. Fingers crossed that they revive it to give it the movie it truly deserves.

Verdict: