Jumper Movie Review
 
Here is What You Need To Know:
Jumper is a little better than you might image, but fails to live up to its potential. The concept is a really fun one. We follow David who discovers, as a young boy, that he is able to teleport himself from one location to another. Pretty exciting stuff for a kid, wouldn’t you agree? Over time his ability grows and he engages in all sorts of wicked activity, such as robbing a bank. Everything is great and David grows up believing he is the only Jumper on the planet, until a villain by the name of Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) comes looking for him. Roland is a Paladin and Paladin’s kill Jumpers, oh yes, there are other Jumpers. Soon after Roland finds David, another Jumper contacts David. This Jumper Griffin shows him the ropes and, no surprise we get a small-scale war between Jumpers and Paladins. There is some sappy silly romance forced in for good message and some seriously unnecessary garbage with David’s mother, Mary played by Diane Lane. Jumper has lots of potential, and I do mean a lot, maybe they can get it right next time. Stranger things have happened, look at who we elected to the highest office around, not once, but twice.
What Was Cool:
-Jumper has some really underappreciated visual effects. There are some pretty neat visuals in this flick.
-You absolutely have to give a little thumbs up to any film that goes to as many locations all around the world as Jumper. Jumper did literally jump all over the place. These location changes make it easier to forgive some of the films goof-ups.
-The Coliseum scene is really nice.
-Discovering why Paladins want to kill Jumpers is pretty nicely done.
-Jumper might actually be able to improve itself during its sequels. When is the last time you heard that stated about a film? A film that is so-so the first time around, but improves dramatically in the sequels. We can hope.
The Film’s Real Genius or Geniuses:
-Jumper the film is based on Jumper the book written by Steven Gould. Must give Steven some credit for a original enough premise.
Overlooked Performance/Accomplishment:
Oh I guess the overlooked accomplishment on Jumper is Steven Gould and Hayden Christensen’s agent, of course.
Story C- (Certainly the script has some large flaws, which is too bad.)
Use of Science B- (The science is there, but its not really explained in great depth, which is again, too bad.)
Acting C (Fine, everyone knows Christensen can’t act too much and someone else would have been better, but he is okay. Rachel Bilson as the girlfriend was a much bigger casting issue; she just didn’t pull it off. Samuel L. Jackson is rather good as the twisted Paladin searching for David.)
Portrayal of Women C
Style/Sex Appeal B (Much of Jumper has a sexy, cool vibe to it.)
Enjoyability Grade C+
Home Theater/HD Factor B+
Gut Check (Level of Studio Executive Guts) B (Its based on a book but it wasn’t that well known. Let’s give them a little credit on this one.)
Overall Innovation B- (Jumper has the potential to be quite cool. The concept is fun and it will be interesting to see if the whole Jumper world goes anywhere.)
Overall Grade C (With a little more work, Jumper could have been a bit hit. The writers needed to explain the science behind Jumping in more detail, as the science is hardly explained at all. How did Jumpers come to be? How about the Paladins? I think the writers and filmmaker Doug Liman were looking to the sequels instead of explaining some of these key issues in the first film. When watching the movie try to image some well-done scenes explaining some of these elements; you will see how much it would have helped the entire film. The writers relied too much on all the location changes and not enough on explaining the universe of Jumper.)
A Little Fact About Cherie:
I was really excited about this film and would be enthusiastic to see a sequel if they can only get it together. Any Jumper sequel would need new writers and that would make me happy.
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