Jumper

Jumper (2008), starring Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Jamie Bell and last, but by no means least, Samuel L. Jackson.

On first hearing about this movie I was thoroughly excited by it, the concept although not original showed a lot potential, the actors involved had a mixture of new up and coming (Rachel Bilson), actors who have potential but hasn't blossomed yet (Hayden Christensen, and Jamie Bell) and a favourite and established star (Samuel L. Jackson). Not only that but the director (Doug Liman) has shown a lot of potential in the past with action in the past(The Bourne Identity and Mr and Mrs Smith).

With the actors and concept that I heard about I was only too eager to see the trailer come out. The trailer produced more excitement and some stellar visual action sequences. More hype and more excitement ensued. Unfortunately I missed it at the cinema, and from there it went downhill. Rumours abounded that all the good bits were shown in the trailer. I, however, tried to stay hopeful but I have to admit, because of those rumours it did put me off buying or even renting it. So I waited and waited till it came on TV. This weekend Sky Movies Premier had Jumper as one of it's movies of the week. So this morning, when it came on Anytime I got up and watched it....

The film follows David (Hayden Christensen) as he learns he can teleport. He leaves his childhood sweetheart Millie (Rachel Bilson) behind and moves to the city. Initially using it to rob banks he soon learns that he is being hunted by Samuel L. Jackson's Roland. Soon David finds he is not alone in his ability when he meets Griffin (Jamie Bell). The majority of the action comes through the "jumpers" being followed by Jackson's Paladins as they hunt them down and try and kill them.

Christensen is an uncharasmatic lead role in this film but it is not just his fault that he fails to make his mark on the film, rather shockingly David S. Goyer did the screenplay for this film. Who, some of you may say....although you may not know the name you will know the movies he has written. He wrote the story for The Dark Knight, and scripts for Blade, Dark City, and Batman Begins. Although he may have had some dodgy ones in between (Blade Trinity and The Crow: City of Angels) he has the potential to be one of the best scriptwriters out there in my opinion. Jumper, however, is one of his poorer efforts. The dialogue comes out clichéd and wooden and the plot is so holey that it might as well have been written by the Pope himself! There are glimpses of brilliance but only glimpses, for instance when Bell hints at the long past of Jumpers vs Paladins. That should have been developed further and could have driven the start of the film instead of the pointless back story of David, nothing in my view could have saved his character.

Jamie Bell was the raison d'etre for me. His character, Griffin, seemed deeper and fleshed out more, it may have been because of the mystery and some might say lack of depth. Whichever it is I found Bell both believably and eagerly waited for him to return to screen, which is a shock when Jackson is in the film and he was letdown by a very very poorly developed character.

So this leads me to the plot, jumbled and a mess in my view. Conceptually it had so much possibility, but it seems that Goyer or Liman decided they wanted to rush it into production. This is a film that could have been so much more but was severely let down. I really do hope that Jumper 2 will live up to the potential that Jumper showed.
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆