Our Review
Life is pretty good if you’re a jumper, so it seems. At the blink of an eye you can teleport yourself to anywhere in the world, steal a load of cash from bank vaults, find yourself a plush New York apartment and get acquainted with some lovely ladies as you please. That’s all standard fare for our hero David (Hayden Christensen), and all is well. That is, until Roland Cox - the black man with the white hair - appears on the scene to turn David’s easy-access world upside down, as if tossing the very snow globe that inadvertently triggered David’s first Jump while at high school, providing an escape route from his abusive father and his unhappy school life.
Cox (Samuel L. Jackson) is a Paladin, and Paladins are the natural enemies of Jumpers, and have been throughout the ages. These days, they’re mean as ever and have the technology to track down Jumpers by opening up wormholes. When David meets fellow Jumper Griffin (Jamie Bell), old questions are answered and new ones raised. It transpires that Jumpers turn bad, and Griffin is a prime example. Convinced that he is different, David decides to incorporate his estranged high-school sweetheart Millie (Rachel Bilson) into his adventures. After all, she always did want to see the world.
High concept, sure, but the underlying theme of Jumper hinges so heavily on X-Men, Star Wars and countless other films that it has no real identity it can call its own. Moreover, the script is not strong enough to bind together its themes and characters to create any kind of cohesive story, let alone an original one.
Bourne Identity and Mr & Mrs Smith director Doug Liman had always intended this movie to go all the way. He wanted David as an antihero – a chancer whose relatability is tested to the max. In the film though, he comes across as little more than the guy next door, while Griffin, who is given far less screen time, is far more intriguing as the disillusioned Jumper. Liman, known for his attention to detail and borderline perfectionism, just doesn’t seem to have enough material here to show us what he can really do.
Jumper’s lack of closure points unapologetically to a sequel in the pipeline, making it look rather more like mediocre television than the whirlwind adventure movie that it could have been.
By Owain Gillard
Movie Details
A genetic anomaly allows a young man to teleport himself anywhere. He discovers this gift has existed for centuries and finds himself in a war that has been raging for thousands of years between "Jumpers" and those who have sworn to kill them.
Running Time: 1 hr. 30 min.
Release Date: February 14th, 2008
Cast:
Hayden Christensen
Samuel L. Jackson
Jamie Bell
Diane Lane
Max Thieriot
