Jumper
Released: February 2008
Runtime: 88 minutes
Rated: PG-13 (violence, language & sexuality)
Jumper
has obviously taken a cue from another recent sci-fi movie,
Cloverfield, and clocks in at under ninety
minutes. And much like
Cloverfield, this movie is all about the action and
the special effects. But this is not a bad thing because the
action happens so quickly you really don’t care about the who or, in the
case of
Jumper, even
the why (more on that later).
Based on the Steven Gould novel,
Jumper
tells the story of
David (Hayden Christiansen) who mysteriously has the power to transport himself
from one location to another at will. Learning about his “gift” quite by
accident David begins to take advantage of his unique ability by jumping into
bank vaults and taking enough cash to ensure a very comfortable life.
Hayden Christiansen and Rachel Bilson star in Jumper
Just as mysteriously as David discovers his
ability, than the chase starts between himself and the Paladins – a secret group
whose sole existence is to hunt down and destroy jumpers such as David. Yes,
surprise, we discover David is not the only jumper. Led by Roland (Samuel L
Jackson) the Paladins begin to track David and fellow jumper Griffin (Jamie
Bell) around the globe. Of course, the obligatory love interest is introduced
along the way but we are given so much in so little time we forgive the rather
formulaic and not unpredictable storyline.
Director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity and
Mr and Mrs Smith) goes for non-stop action but very little in the way of
character development. The one-dimensional (no pun intended) feel of the movie
though works well in a comic-book kind of way and the special effects are top
notch.
Interestingly given all of the special
effects in the movie it was mostly on location including one pivotal scene shot
inside the Roman Colosseum. Apparently this access to the Colosseum was
unprecedented although the film makers were not permitted to allow anything to
actually touch the ground inside the amphitheater’s labyrinth.
Of course the big question remains
unanswered throughout the show – why does David have these abilities in the
first place. We are given hints as to some of the origin of his teleportation
powers but it is very clear in the end that we are being set-up for a sequel.
As far as I am concerned though they can
forget the sequel and make this into a television series instead. With the
recent demise of Journeyman on network television there is a huge hole where a
really good time travel, sci-fi show should exist. Oh to bring back the glory
days of Quantum Leap.
And note to the television network brass:
if you can’t afford Christiansen and Jackson for the small screen version (or
even convince them to do television) it doesn’t matter in the end as it’s not
the characters that drive
Jumper but the circumstances that the characters find themselves.
