Film uses teleportation to take his hero from hardship to high living back to heartache when he realize his unique gift makes him a target
Jumper” focuses on a troubled young man who happens upon his ability to teleport himself from one location to the next, but also makes him a target in a centuries-long war.
“Jumper” brings teleportation to the big screen and takes its audience on a journey that is sometimes confusing, somewhat superficial, often exciting and always engaging. (Listen to Network Downtime for a podcast review of Jumper.)
Director Doug Liman brings the popular sci-fi book by Steven Gould to the big screen with dynamic effects that often let the viewer forget that the story isn’t very well told. Fans of the book might be a step ahead of the audience members unfamiliar with the centuries-long battle between Jumpers, who are individuals born with the knack for teleportation, and Paladins — an order of religious zealots that firmly believes the power to be in all places at once belongs only in God’s hands. The battle plays out partly in “Jumper” as viewers are asked to make the leap to believing human teleportation is possible and to side with the bank-robbing yet good-hearted Jumper being pursued by murderous Paladins.
To start, “Jumper” doesn’t give its audience the time to determine if the teleportation depicted in the film is believable; it asks viewers to suspend reality and travel with David Rice, played by Hayden Christensen, to numerous exotic locales as he relishes in the bounty his unique gift affords him. But the no-strings-attached fun is relatively short-lived (about eight years) when David’s wanderlust lands him back in his hometown looking for his high-school crush, Millie, played by Christensen’s rumored real-life love Rachel Bilson.
The trip down memory lane turns out to be a mistake for David because he puts Millie as well as his abusive — or at the very least uncaring — father, played by Michael Rooker, in harm’s way. But David also learns a bit about his past and why his mother, Diane Lane in a cameo, abandoned him at a young age. The problem with David is that despite Paladins’ belief that Jumpers will only use their power for evil — which this film makes the audience believe robbing banks and living a glamorous life without working as David does is not evil — David is a Jumper with a heart. He was the sensitive kid in high school, and despite this great power, he doesn’t abuse it for more than a romantic rendezvous with a gorgeous woman in London or to surf the best waves off the coast of Australia.
Samuel L. Jackson as Roland, a lead Paladin most blood-thirsty for Jumpers, tracks David down and begins a battle to be played out throughout the rest of this film — and seemingly in a potential sequel. Along the way, David gets schooled by Griffin, played by Jamie Bell of “Billy Elliot” fame, as he briefly explains the history between Jumpers and Paladins. Griffin, knowing about his talent since age 5 compared with David’s realization at age 15, proactively hunts Paladins and strategizes his next move in a lair surrounded by nothing but desert.
Liman, who also directed “The Bourne Identity” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” has a talent for creating engaging fight scenes on film. He is able to make battling through time and space possible and quite interactive with details around “jump scars” that make it possible for one to follow a Jumper in his journey. And Paladins used electricity-laden weapons to discombobulate Jumpers to the point that they couldn’t will themselves away from a dangerous situation. Yet despite the high-tech tools used to capture the teleporting phenomenon, Roland prefers to take their life in a much more primitive way. The effects created to depict teleportation involve blurring rooms, papers flying and whirlwinds — helping Liman make what could have been a static effect much fun to watch.
Perhaps Liman took great care to make the effects of the film mind-blowing and entertaining enough for the audience to forget the weak story and flat characters — with the exception of Bell’s Griffin, who steals every scene he is in from the stoic Christensen. For instance, Griffin is the Jumper that knows to jump to London and bring a double-decker bus back for his battle with Roland. And Jackson is playing the part of bad-ass on a mission that is becoming stereotypical of him — yet he does it with a striking white hairdo that provides a contrast to his dark nature. Bilson, playing mostly a throw-away girlfriend role, provides some suspense in the film when her constant questioning of David’s actions and motives causes the bad guys to catch him more easily. And Lane’s character isn’t fully realized as she seemingly jumps in and out of David’s life as well.
All these Jumper/Paladin details could be fleshed out in what seems to be an inevitable sequel, but on its own “Jumper” is worth the 90 minutes of film it fills. The story isn’t nearly complete and fans of the novel could take exception to its telling onscreen, but for the uninformed viewer, the movie is visually entertaining and the action keeps the audience wanting to see where the movie might jump next.
