Jumper [Blu-ray] [2008] [US Import]

For the generation that won't wait for anything, the teleporting protagonists of Jumper may have more appeal than the likes of Spiderman and Wolverine. If you skip ads, sneak a peek at the last chapter of a book, have ever wanted to fast forward through a boring flight, or truncate the dull commute to work, it may be your fantasies that Hayden Christensen is living in Bourne director Doug Liman's globe-trotting sci-fi outing. Not content with such mundane shortcuts, gadabout Christensen is disposed to good living - financed by teleporting away the contents of bank - in a New York penthouse; he breakfasts on top of the Sphinx, checks out London from the clock-face of Big Ben before going on the pull, and flits in and out of a series of holiday hot-spot locations that resemble a fast flick through a travel-agent's plushest brochure. But one day jumper-hunter Samuel L. Jackson - wearing the daftest hairpiece since Morgan Freeman impersonated R. Lee Ermey in Dreamcatcher - is waiting for him with a wake-up call. Jackson is a Paladin, a sect that has been hunting those Godless teleporters since at least the middle-ages, though the invention of electricity has given them the ability to pin the fidgety globetrotters down while they run them through with a nasty hunting-knife.

Jumper had a lot of potential and it was a frustrating film. It's beautifully shot, with an intriguing premise, and a great performance from Samuel L. Jackson. Unfortunately, it's also got some cringe worthy dialog, distractingly large plot holes, and a zero charisma female lead in Rachel Bilson. The film looks great, featuring some jaw-dropping location photography, but the plot is a hodgepodge of underdeveloped elements. Diane Lane gets third billing for about five minutes of screen time in a throwaway role with absolutely no payoff. Jamie Bell, easily the best of the cast aside from Jackson, crafts a far more interesting character than lead Hayden Christensen, yet the script (credited to three different writers) regulates him to little more than a plot device. Worst of all is Rachel Bilson's character, who seems like an afterthought at best. The script's paper-thin characterization forces her to flesh out her role with sheer charisma, and, unlike Jackson, she's just not up to it.

There are moments, more than a few, in fact, where Jumper gets it right. The opening sequence, leading up to Christensen's character's discovery of his powers it spot-on, as are just about every one of Jackson's scenes, but these only serve to build false hope. This is a movie in search of an identity. Is it a super-hero movie? A romance? A sci-fi epic? Jumper feels like a movie made by a committee hell-bent on creating a franchise and that, ultimately, proves to be its undoing. Much as Jackson's character is fond of saying that no man should be all places at all times; no movie should be all things to all people. Bottom Line: Jumper is an unfortunate mess of a movie that wastes some beautiful photography and a great performance by Samuel L. Jackson.

Jumper is a film that works because of its simplicity rather try and weave together numerous sub-plots that end up going no-where. It feels very much like a pilot for a TV show that you actually want to keep watching to see what happens next. Admittedly the story is paper thin but it moves at such a pace it's difficult to care. The chemistry is good between Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson and feels natural.

The real star however, is Jamie Bell. He is very charismatic and he brings the film to life every time he is on screen. His accent is very strange though, and seems to be constantly changing. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but it doesn't really matter. Some of the action scenes are breathtaking and the "jump" looks fantastic every time you see it.

Overall this is a mindless action film that feels like the start of something much bigger. There is no doubt that a sequel could flesh out the characters and provide a genuinely interesting film. If you prefer films with numerous plot strands then steer clear as this will bore you to tears. If however you want to see a popcorn film, then this is a must see.

After the school prank, David Rice (Hayden Christensen) falls into a frozen river and is washed away by the current. Just when he thinks he is about to lose battle against the icy water, he manages to transport himself, or `jump', to safety. This new found ability allows David to escape his abusive father and start a new life. He lives a playboy existence, with a normal day spent jumping from country to country - with a little bit of bank robbery thrown in to keep the bills paid. Things are good, until David finds out that his kind, Jumpers, are the targets of a fanatical religious group, The Paladins, with Roland Cox (Samuel L Jackson) hot on his heels.

The initial signs for Jumper were good. It had a good premise, based on a best selling book and came from the director responsible for big Hollywood films The Bourne Identity and Mr and Mrs Smith. Sadly, the execution is poor, with a story which lacks any depth - honestly, what has been outlined above is all that happens. Director Doug Linman and screenwriter Doug Goyer, the man responsible for Batman Begins and the Blade Trilogy, have left many aspects of the story underdeveloped, despite having the running time to play with. The Paladins are left as one dimensional bad guys, with no sub-plot exploring their religious motivations or the history of the assassins. Other issues are touched on briefly, but then forgotten or explained with drooping eyes. This under writing leads the film to dragggggggggggggggggg.

The are three rules of jumping: 1) A jumper can only jump to a place that he has been before or a place that he can see; 2) A jumper can only take with him objects he is gripping that are not anchored to the earth; 3) A jumper cannot jump if he is tethered to the earth or tethered to something that is anchored to the earth. There should be a fourth rule added to this list - DON'T CAST HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN IN YOUR LEAD ROLE!!!! Christensen was lucky to get the role, as filming had already begun with young British actor Tom Sturridge until the studio decided they need a `name' in the lead role. True, Christensen got the bums on seats, but most film fans know that his whiny, screwed-up-face, bland acting ruined the Star Wars prequel films. And he gives the same whiny, screwed-up-face, bland performance in Jumper.

The supporting cast, as mentioned above, haven't had their characters fleshed out, so there is little for them to do. Rachel Bilson, as David's childhood love interest, is on auto-pilot, giving the same, bland, Summer from the OC performance. Samuel L. Jackson, along with some weird hair, jumps around, says some words and picks up his enormous pay-check. Diane Lane is in it too...for about three minutes. Why? To give a lead in to the inevitable two sequels obviously.

The film does have good aspects to it. Jamie Bell's character Griffin injects the film with the zest and charm which Christensen's performance lacks, despite an accent which lies somewhere between his native Newcastle and Dublin. Sadly, the exploration of his back story has been left to a below-par video game that few people will play, so that the audience can listen to Christensen moan for a while longer and furrow his brow. The film also looks fantastic, with the effort taken to travel to each an every location, really shown in the finishing of the film. The fight scene between the two jumpers over a detonator is visually stunning, moving from the top of the Empire State Building, to the middle of a war zone, to the tops of the Pyramids and beyond. Also, the driving scene through Tokyo looks brilliant and the jumping effect is faultless.

There was a good film lurking somewhere is Jumper. Sadly, due to underwriting and bad casting, Jumper is simply another Hollywood cash-cow trilogy (trust me, there will be more), which is excused by being dubbed an `origin story'.