Jumper could be the next Bourne Identity. That may not mean what you think it does.
Director: Doug Liman Writer: David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls and Simon Kinberg Cinematographer: Barry Peterson
Cast:
Hayden Christensen (Shattered Glass) ... David Rice
Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) ... Roland
Diane Lane (Unfaithful) ... Mary Rice
Jamie Bell (King Kong) ... Griffin
Rachel Bilson (The O.C.) ... Millie Harris
Michael Rooker (Mallrats) ... William Rice
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some language and brief sexuality.
THE FILM
Jumper works at being one thing - a wish fulfillment film for young teen age boys.
Hayden Christensen is David Rice, a man who learned at a young age that he could jump from one place to another by thinking about the destination. For comic book fans, think of Nightcrawler of The X-Men. What makes the movie interesting is the personal maturation the character takes through the film. The problem with many superhero films is the character acquires his special powers and then immediately uses them to protect and serve. The origin story of Spider-Man is an obvious departure as Peter Parker uses his powers at first to be a famous professional wrestler for quick cash. It is not until his Uncle Ben dies that he changes the course of his destiny.
David takes this one step further and does what I assume the majority of people would do if they had his unique power. His first career choice is to jump into bank vaults and steal all the money. The film chooses to make a weak choice when David leaves behind IOU’s promising to pay it all back one day. This is just a poor story choice that I would assume was done to appease censors who felt that the hero should never appear to be a thief. It is also a ridiculous story addition.
David is not much of a good guy throughout the entire movie. What makes him the hero is the fact that the Paladins are complete evil. The Paladins are a fanatic group that’s only purpose is to hunt down Jumpers and kill them. Their reasoning is no one but God should have the ability to do what the Jumpers can do. The most dangerous Jumper is Roland, played with proper menace by Samuel L. Jackson.
The best parts of the film are the jumps. Director Doug Liman takes this notion and creates some spectacular effects. Whether it was David jumping from place to place or the amazing fight scene between David and fellow Jumper Griffin, the jumping itself was amazing. Hayden Christensen delivers one of his best performances to date and helps continue to assist in the elimination of Anakin Skywalker from our collective memories.
The worst part about this film, and it is by far the most disappointing since the effects were so amazing, was the complete shallowness of the script. David only cared about living a carefree life until Roland starts hunting for him. He only fought back to save his girlfriend, taking no initiative, only reacting to the dangers around him. He was not much of a hero in any sense of the word and the only reason he stood a chance was because he was a more powerful Jumper than any other.
The reason he is such a powerful Jumper is never explained. What ends up happening to Griffin, the most interesting character in the film, is never explained. The script is so busy looking at creating spectacular special effects, that it ignores explaining many plot strands. The movie is a jumbled mess that lives and dies with the jumps. It is a disappointment that seems like a part of a larger, greater story left untold.
It had a decent box office and might warrant a sequel, something I would look forward to seeing. If you recall, Liman directed the interesting Bourne Identity and then stepped aside, allowing Paul Greengrass to direct the amazing sequels. That good idea would become one of the greatest stories in film over the last decade. Liman has proven with Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and now Jumper that he can direct great popcorn action. If Liman will once again step aside, maybe a better director can step in and build a solid franchise out of this great idea.
I can’t leave the review without mentioning the ending. It is a horrible end but might make the sequel even more interesting. However, for a standalone film, the last scene was such a letdown that I had to lower my rating. It was just a horrible ending to an already shallow movie. If I was a 12-year old boy, it might have excited me. Ultimately, it is an interesting failure.
The Video
The video on the Blu-ray is amazing. There are moments with grain, but for the most part, it looks beautiful. It is presented in 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode (2.40:1).
The Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround track (48kHz/24-bit). It sounds perfect. The music and dialogue never overpower each other and the sound effects, especially the jumping, are fantastic. I have no complaints about the audio of this film.
The Extras
Commentary Track with Director Doug Liman, Writer/Producer Simon Kinberg and Producer Lucas Foster - The commentary track is very good. The three men talk about adapting the original story into a film while creating the villains from scratch. They also bring up many of the budget limitations and it becomes slightly obvious why much of the story seems incomplete.
Jump Start: David’s Story Animated Graphic Novel (8:07) - This animated short film fleshes out the story of David as he searches for his mother. This short animated film is actually better than the feature film in actual story.
Jumping Around the World Feature - This is a batch of features that allows you to witness behind-the-scenes info from each of the countries the film visited. The locations include Tijuana (Mexico), Michigan and New York (USA), London (England), Rome (Italy), Sahara Desert (Africa), Giza (Egypt), Antarctica, Chechnya (Russia), Dubai (UAE) and Tokyo (Japan).
Jumping Around the World (PIP) - This is a Blu-ray exclusive feature that takes the Jumping Around the World featurette and uses it in a picture-in-picture format. It is the most disappointing PIP Blu-ray feature I have seen yet, as it is very random and about as shallow as the film’s script. It has some nice information but lacks in quality.
Doug Liman’s Jumper: Uncensored (35:34) - The feature starts out with the information that Liman stopped filming three week’s into principal photography, fired every actor on the project except Jamie Bell and recast the entire movie. Liman said his goal was to create his third movie in a row that can be considered simply “Big Hollywood Entertainment.” This is a great feature. There is one point when Jamie Bell lets loose with his frustration during the filming and holds nothing back. Every “making of” should be this honest.
Making an Actor Jump (7:36) - Doug Liman mentions here he did not want the movie to be about the visual effects. I wonder if he realizes those effects are the only thing that makes this movie exciting? The feature is cool because it shows how they created the jumping effects while the director and effects team talks about why and how they achieved the specific traits of jumping.
Jumping from Novel to Film: The Past, Present and Future of Jumper (8:08) - Jumper was apparently based on a series of popular young adult novels. This feature talks about the books and how this might lead to a successful movie franchise. They talk to author Steven Gould and there is a funny moment where Liman compares Jumper changing young adult’s superhero in much the same way Bourne changed the spy genre. It’s a nice little feature that reminds us The Paladins were not part of the novels. This movie was part of a three-movie planned series, which might explain its plot holes.
Deleted Scenes (11:17) - There are six scenes. One includes David seeing a psychiatrist to find out why he keeps going back to Ann Arbor. Another scene shows Roland at his office and home, and actually shows he has a family. These are scenes that made their characters more rounded and would have added depth to the film. These scenes add something that lacked in the film itself and might have improved the final outcome.
Previz: Future Concepts (4:34) - This is an animated rendering of some of the film’s fight scenes.
D-Box Motion Code - The Blu-ray is equipped with the D-Box technology if you have the equipment.
Digital Copy - There is a second disc with a digital copy available in both iTunes and Media Player formats.
The Film: 5.5/10.0 The Video: 9.0/10.0 The Audio: 10.0/10.0 The Extras: 8.5/10.0
The 411: Jumper is a movie that could have been awesome but was uninspiring. The visual effects and action scenes are fantastic and the movie is worth checking out for the effects alone. The story is forgettable and shallow and the great acting by Hayden Christensen is wasted in the effort. The disc has some nice features and are worth the look as they deal with the great effects over all else. It’s worth the rent for the effects and features but is easily forgotten.
you must me crazy. This movie was freakin awesome. I'm 26 and even my wife loved the film. The only reason he left IOU's at the scene of the crimes was because he ran away from home so early and was never taught wrong from right by his drunk father.
Posted By: bigtomk (Guest) on June 20, 2008 at 09:50 AM
Actually this movie was complete garbage. The Novel by Steven Gould is fantastic. The movie completely ruined it and was nothing but a train wreck.
Posted By: Jeremy (Guest) on June 20, 2008 at 12:47 PM
this movie was awesome. i went to see it with my boyfriend (at the time) and we both loved it. its a good movie.
Posted By: Ashley (Guest) on June 29, 2008 at 08:47 PM
