Amazon.com: As preposterous action movies go, Jumper is pleasantly unpretentious and breezily entertaining. A young man named David (Hayden Christensen) discovers he has the power to teleport (or "jump") anywhere he can visualize. After using this power to steal and make a comfortable life for himself, he pursues the girl he longed for in school (Rachel Bilson, The O. C.). But as he does so, another jumper (Jamie Bell, Billy Elliot) and a pack of fanatical jumper-hunters called paladins (led by a white-haired Samuel L. Jackson) crashes into David's freewheeling life. Jumper wastes no time trying to explain how jumping works or delving into the hows and whys of the paladins; this is an alluring fantasy of power directed at a pell-mell pace by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Go). There's a brief moment when it feels like the movie will bog down in romance and vague gestures towards character development--happily, that's the moment when Bell appears and the whole movie shifts into overdrive. You might wish that Bell and Christensen had swapped roles; Bell has a far more engaging personality, and Christensen's bland good looks might better suit a more aggressive character. Nonetheless, Jumper has oodles of dynamism and nifty visual effects to propel its comic-book storyline forward. A variety of recognizable actors in bit parts (such as Diane Lane and Kristen Stewart, Panic Room) suggest that the filmmakers are laying the groundwork for sequels. Based on a critically-acclaimed science-fiction novel by Steven Gould. --Bret Fetzer
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Product Description: David is a Jumper who can teleport himself anywhere in the world which creates a fun and exciting life. But things turn deadly when David finds himself pursued by a secret organization sworn to kill Jumpers. Forming an uneasy alliance with another Jumper he becomes a player in a war that has been raging for thousands of years.System Requirements:Running Time: 88 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/FUTURISTIC Rating: PG-13 UPC: 024543519652 Manufacturer No: 2251965
Why did this movie get such bad reviews? The movie had great special effects, an interesting enough story and takes you all over the world to fabulous locations. It doesn't explain everything but I think the makers were planning to do that in sequels if there are any. I thought Sam Jackson's character was a bit on the corny side but I had a great time watching this movie. Well worth the rental.
Loved it A great movie with lots of action, effects and fun. Loved it from beginning to end.
Jumping In, Jumping Out Doug Liman seems to have done nothing but freefall since The Bourne Identity, which was five stars. Then he did Mr. and Mrs. Smith, (4 stars), and now he's done this wannabe (3 stars). I don't even want to know how the sequel is going to turn out, although it has the potential to be a whole lot better. Anyways, this movie has a great concept of teleportation, used in sort of a anti-hero and selfish manner. Add a girl that was better off out of the picture, and you have a somewhat entertaining disappointment.
Hayden Christensen, while no Oscar winner, isn't as bad most would have you believe, but on the other hand, you almost never see his true colors because they're hidden under boring, one-dimensional and whiny characters. And that's what this character is, boring, one-dimensional, whiny and just plain dumb. In fact, Jamie Bell's Griffin is a whole lot more exiting, experienced, has his act together, has no girlfriend dragging him down, and he's just plain cooler. A movie centered around that character would have made for a much more interesting movie. Hopefully, he'll be around in sequals as an ally.
But the main problem with the movie comes in the form of Samuel L. Jackson, who gets his revenge from Hayden kicking his butt in Star Wars, and in turn shocks everybody, and stabs them with a knife that probably has a deleted scene to explain its strange mysteriousness. Or maybe it's just bad filmmaking. Anyways, Sam Jackson and his group of Jumper killers are so over the top, Evil Knievel couldn't jump over it. Sam Jackson especially. He's just so evil, he's beyond evil, not believable, and again, over the top.
Then there's the "twist" of Diane Lane, which is not only disappointing but confusing. She's a bad guy? Now, any path they take with her character is going to be so muddled a Hummer couldn't get through it. Then there's the girlfriend, who seems pretty cardboard, and who I never could quite get into. She isn't bad lookin', but her character development seems rather predictable, and again, boring.
But for all those wrongs about this movie, there is also plenty of good ones. The prologue is interesting and does a good job setting up the character, although Hayden's narration does get annoying after the first time. Then there's the action. Ahhh yes, the action. The action is entertaining, interesting, and pretty darn cool. My personal favorite was when they brought the London bus to the Egyptian desert.
So overall, you have a excellent concept and tons of potential. Unfortunately, this potential doesn't formulate into much thanks to poor writing, bad characters, over the top bad guys, questionable casting, and way too many lulls, both intended or otherwise. I look forward to a sequel, where hopefully they'll make it an action film. It won't have much depth to it, but as long as there's no lulls it should be pretty entertaining at least.
Much better to watch at home i saw jumper in the theater and it was fun, so i got the dvd. the effects of jumping from place to place became disorienting on the big screen - this was much more enjoyable watching on a home video setup (large screen though it may be).
the scenery is great. maui, rome, egypt, london, new york - what a world. to be able to be anywhere anytime - brilliant.
Displaced Person `Jumper' could be the perfect manipulative teen movie fantasy. Start with a boy who faces a distant, but menacing father in a divorced family where the mother's been absent since his fifth birthday, a bully at school who keeps him from his dream girl, and we have all the makings of an escapist venue about someone who gets and tries to keep it all.
In an early confrontation, David Rice (Hayden Christensen) meets school bully Mike as he connects with Mike's girlfriend, Millie Harris (Rachel Bilser). He's sharing a glass bubble snow scene with her when Mike confiscates it and throws it on a frozen river. Predictably, David falls through the ice while retrieving it, and remarkably, Millie's rescue attempts don't have her joining him through the same ice; even more mysterious is how Dave gets transported to the local Ann Arbor Library before he can suffocate under a sheet of unbroken ice.
Now he's discovered magical powers that enable him to jump ahead short and long distances in hyper-cyber leaps with invisible traces. If he can only hone it and use it at will, he can globe trot the world and use it at whim. We not only go forward physically, but we do so in time frames as well with casual announcements of passing time. (The movie does this--not the powers.) Relationships would surely suffer, but not for him. We see him elude his overbearing father, but his trek seems like a lonely one with no one he can share his gift.
His first act is to do mission impossible and rob an impenetrable bank. In one of the movie's time warps, we leap ahead to David sitting in his upscale New York apartment. Never mind that this kid who wouldn't have the credit history or employment record to justify his application. Having forgotten Millie for some years, he's able to pick up a girl at a London pub just after hanging out on one of the four faces of Big Ben. After enough fooling around, he decides he's grown lonesome for Millie, so he heads (I should say jumps) back to Ann Arbor years later where he finds she's supporting her college expenses as a bar maid. Here he also meets a drunken Mike where the conversation turns as tipsy as his beer glass. Again enamored by the contrast of brutish Mike to his civility and maybe a little more than impressed by David's ability to throttle his nemesis through powerful transport, Millie is his. Not wanting to be peculiar in her eyes, David satisfies her desire to travel the world, using traditional money instead of his magical powers.
There has to be a catch. After the bank robbery, NSA operative, Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) is hot on his trail and knowledgeable about the Jumpers. Using an electrical device, Roland is able to stave off jumping powers by shocking the Jumper's brain waves. Not able to transport, he nevertheless, uses photographs to unlock the path of his suspects' movements. Labeled an Inquisition figure, Roland roars, "Only God should have the power to be all places at all times." So instead of an investigative interest in the bank robbery, we get a jealous preacher. If there's no consolation in the chase, then we're at least better informed when David locks heads with British fellow jumper, Griffin (Jamie Bell).
In many ways the movie goes nowhere. The scenes where he moves ahead are done with genuine expressions by the actors, but the special effects draw attention to themselves. It's much more satisfying to watch the believable blur in a 'Bourne' movie. The transport gets tiresome at times. Credibility also takes a back seat. Maybe he can jump to Maui, but does it automatically make him a champion surfer? There are no good guys here (except for one sweet and innocent girl). That may work for 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' but not here. Robbing a bank doesn't make our protagonist likable or gain our sympathies. Without intending to do so, the film highlights much of sixties' science fiction which looked upon such advancements with a wary eye and undermined them with consequences. (Okay, so this is more fantasy than anything else, but it's the same idea.) I did like the mystery of David's mother (Diane Lane), but even that treatment is limited. If you want a real vehicle for the imagination, read Philip Jose' Farmers' `To Your Scattered Bodies Go (Riverworld Saga, Book 1),' a truly transporting work--one that expertly fuses space and time with the necessary caveats in ways this movie does not.
(Based on a novel Jumper: A Novel (Jumper) by Steven Gould.)
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