DVD : Jumper [2008]

Rating: - Brilliant!
I love films especially fast paced ones. This is simply brilliant and loved every second. Samuel L. Jackson was amazing and Hayden was very good. Brilliant film!

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Rating: - Fantastic Premise,Unbelievably Botched
David Rice(Hayden Christensen)finds on the point of drowning in a semi - frozen lake that he can teleport instantly to anywhere on Earth.He proceeds to rob a bank and go sight seeing but it is years later and a meeting with an old college flame(Rachel Bilson) that he begins to realise that there are people - the shadowy Paladins -led by Samuel Jackson who are willing to kill him to prevent him"jumping".An encounter with a fellow jumper (Jamie Bell)leads to revelations and a showdown with Jackson.
Some of the special effects are jaw dropping and Samuel Jackson is not bad but everything else is botched beyond belief.
Doug Liman(Go,The Bourne Identity)has fashioned the most disappointing studio high concept thriller in years.No narrative arc to speak of,dull scene after dull scene that barely cohere and no tension let alone action.
An hour in and I was impressed that he had managed to cobble 80 minutes worth of useable footage together.Admittedly the last 20 minutes showed glimpses of what might have been.
Liman replaced his original leads with Christensen and Bilson after shooting started.Talk about mistake-Christensen showed in the Star Wars prequels that he is the most wooden actor plying his trade in Hollywood today- he is so charmless and lifeless that a cardboard cut-out would emote more than him - he is AWFUL.In fact the young actor playing Rice in flashback is streets better and admirable actor that he is- Michael Rooker as his father - no!no!No!
The plot developments such as they are are so incredibly lame and no reasons,implied or stated,are given as to how the"jumpers"acquired their skills or why the Paladins pursue them.Tell a lie - the age of 5 has something to do with it but by this time I was past caring.
A good director's worst film and - her's the rub- I watched the excellent Juno on the same night and on it is a trailer for Jumper.It is one of the greatest trailers you will ever see - exciting,brilliantly edited and breathtaking to look at with fantastic music.Everything in fact that Jumper was not.This trailer did not have the best bits in because there are none but some genius has created one of the most magical hoaxes in recent cinema - making Jumper look good.
In film terms THE wasted oppourtunity of the last ten years.Avoid and buy Juno.

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Rating: - Realistic sci-fi?
This is an exhilarating film!It`s sci-fi but with a real feel-No two dimensional goody two shoes characters,no ridiculous sets,or silly gadgets-Instead flawed people in real places who react realistically,so the story flows logically and in a credible manner.I really got immersed in this film-more than anything in a long time-enjoying the jumping rather than grinding my teeth at unnecessarily silly cartoonish situations.Maybe there`s no real heroes or villains,and maybe it doesn`t follow the formula,but this is a more adult approach to superhero fantasy film making. Please,let`s see a sequel!

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Rating: - A woolly jumper - full of holes.
I can only imagine that having the ability to 'jump' to wherever you want to be in a split second is even more useful at the moment considering the price of fuel. If I could appear at the office when mere seconds before I was sat on the settee at home then it would make my life a lot easier.

If you could transport yourself anywhere (well, anywhere you can visualise) then you'd have a lot of fun and 'travel' to some pretty fantastic places. And that is exactly what David does. But pretty soon he is involved in a centuries long war with the 'Paladins' - right-wing Christian nutters who consider the Jumpers to be a physical blasphemy, heretics, sticking two fingers up to the big man in the sky.

It's here that the film falls a bit flat. The long history of the pseudo-religious war is mentioned once but never again explored. And given the phenomenal power of the Jumpers, they never seem to do the obvious thing and simply appear behind a Paladin to bop the one on the head.

Hayden Christensen plays David, the lead character. But his performance is not convincing, not helped by the obvious corny romance, that and the contrast with the better performance of fellow 'Jumper' Jamie Bell. Even Samuel L Jackson fails to impress and is uninspiringly typecast as the black dude who comes out with the cool lines.

In a nutshell: The special effects are no doubt very good. The actual teleporting is realised nicely on screen with a sense of the power involved (lots of bass to rumble the speakers, and a visual ripple of energy shakes all around it). There's also a great scene involving a double decker London bus appearing in the dessert. The effects along with the action make the film watchable, but they can't manage to salvage the movie from the realms of "average at best". The plot hinted at greater things, but they must have 'jumped' out of the final edit as they were nowhere to be found, and the ending felt sloppy with unanswered questions. Maybe the producers hoped this would spawn a new film franchise with David becoming a super-hero type. Maybe they thought they could acheive a glossier version of 'underworld'. Or maybe they just hoped that a medocre plot with shallow characters who are never really brought to life by the lifeless acting would sell enough to make it viable.

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Rating: - Why all the bad reviews??
I dont get why so many people gave this such low ratings. Its a good and entertaining film and the guys powers are really cool. I think it was all good package with good action and it didnt have a story line that makes you go "that would never happen" (except for the jumping powers). I reccomend this to anyone that likes easy going action films.