Jumper

Rating: out of
Released: 2008
Directed by: Doug Liman
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Diane Lane, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson

A “Jumper” is someone who is able to teleport, from location to location, by just thinking of the place. Hayden Christensen has had this ability since childhood. After robbing a bank, he lives off the take, traveling the world, usually before lunch. Samuel L. Jackson leads a team of “paladins” who track down and kill the jumpers.

Director Doug Liman has had a pretty impressive track record over the years. Beginning with SWINGERS, he followed that up with the underrated GO, THE BOURNE IDENTITY (the best of the Bourne films) and most recently MR AND MRS SMITH (his first misfire).

It was written by a team of screenwriters, led by David Goyer, the writer of such sci-fi films as DARK CITY, the BLADE films, and BATMAN BEGINS. Jim Uhls, who adapted FIGHT CLUB is also credited along with Simon Kinberg (MR AND MRS SMITH).

The premise is an intriguing one. Early on, Christensen’s character jumps from his home in New York, picks up a girl in London, goes surfing in the Ocean, and is back home in New York all within a few hours, with his doorman unaware of the day he has had.

Unfortunately, the execution of the story is an absolute mess. It ends with this over edited fight scene that is too confusing to even watch.

Samuel L. Jackson’s character is the problem. He sees Christensen as a threat because “only God should be able to be everywhere at once!”

They could have made a fun action film here. This isn’t that film. At one point, Christensen is watching TV and sees some people stuck in a flood. I thought for sure he would jump there and save them, like he is a superhero. But no, he doesn’t. He just uses his powers to rob banks and sneak into the Coliseum.

Hayden Christensen gives a better performance than he did in the STAR WARS films, but then again, could it have been worse? He also does this very odd thing with his voice throughout, almost like he is disguising it, talking too low. Very strange.

Rachel Bilson is quite attractive as his girlfriend. I think this is the first time I saw her in something other than her role of Summer on THE O.C. I kept expecting her to start whining and called Christensen “Cohen!”. Jamie Bell (BILLY ELLIOT) plays a fellow jumper and Diane Lane has a small role as Christensen’s mom.

The film runs less than 90 minutes. That is probably a sign of problems in the editing room. I think I checked my watch every 10 minutes it was so uninvolving.

At one point an hour into the film, someone’s cell phone rang. Rather than being upset, I kind of understood why he answered the phone and started having a conversation, asking who ever called him “So, how you doing?”

I think I was more interested in hearing how his friend was doing than how the film turned out.

Reviewed by: Jim Magovern

Feb 20,2008