Thursday, June 12, 2008

MOVIE: JUMPER



ABOUT: Jumper is a 2008 science fiction film from 20th Century Fox and New Regency Productions based on the 1992 science fiction novel of the same name by Steven Gould. The film is directed by Doug Liman and stars Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson, Jamie Bell, Max Thieriot, AnnaSophia Robb, and Diane Lane. The film follows a person capable of teleporting to any location as he is chased by a secret group intent on killing him.





The script went through a rewrite prior to filming and the roles for the main characters were changed during production. Jumper was filmed in 20 cities in 14 countries between 2006 and 2007.

Several novels were developed as tie-ins to the film along with a video game for the
Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and Wii consoles, named Jumper: Griffin's Story. Both Christensen and Liman have spoken of one or more sequels.



MY REVIEW: Jumper is a neat little film. I say little because even though it was filmed in all these different countries, has all these action scenes and special effects, it is missing most of what it promises. Jumper is a really good idea for a movie but it seems like the filmmakers just wanted to get your money and show you a couple of action scenes without giving it a good story.

The film is just under an hour and a half. The movie starts off and into the plot way too quickly. The ending ends way too quickly without really explaining anything. Even Diane Lane shows up out of nowhere for two seconds, only to reappear later in the film for three seconds. Sure we understand who the bad guys are and that they are trying to kill all the jumpers but how did they come to know about jumpers? How did the jumpers become who they are? I would think that if I could teleport to anywhere I wanted, I'd want to know how I could do that and I would ask the guy who is trying to kill me because the bad guys seems to know a lot more about it then the jumpers themselves.

The movie does have a few things working for it though. The action scenes are great and if anyone knows how to direct an action scene it is Doug Liman. I liked the fact that the places that they jump to are actually filmed there, for the most part, instead of just using a green screen. I know Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson have a reputation for being really bad actors but I have always liked them. I think both are kind of bad as far as the acting goes but there is something about their bad acting that appeals to me and I have always enjoyed whatever they have been in. Jamie Bell is quite good in his role but Samuel L. Jackson steals the show, with what little show there was.

The bonus features DVD contains a ton of featurettes, all of them pretty much showing you the same thing. A graphic novel that kind of adds to the movie which they should have actually put in the movie and deleted scenes. The movie DVD has audio commentary with Liman, a feature on how they made the movie from book to screen and a how did they do that feature on jumping.



MY CHEESY RATING: Jumper jumps and lands a 6 out of 10.


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