Jumper - review

"see the movie - travel the world from the cinema!"

Jumper (12a)

Dir. Doug Liman

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Go anywhere, do anything – there really are no limits…
Welcome to a reality where in addition to us normal types, there are also folks who can ‘jump’ and I don’t mean as in ‘hop, skip and…’, I mean teleport across any distance in an instant. For these lucky few - no traffic jams, no airport check ins or even queuing in line to pay for goods, the only downside is that they are remorselessly hunted by a fanatical group sworn to wipe their kind from the face of the earth.
Director Doug ‘Bourne Identity’ Liman has made his ‘jump’ to sci-fi after delivering the achingly cool ‘Go’, the laugh out loud ‘Swingers’ and the action packed ‘Mr. and Mrs Smith’. Jumper sees hero David Rice (Hayden Christensen who’ll be back on screen soon in another sci-fi blast – Neuromancer) discovering he has the ability to teleport to any place that he can visualise. Obviously the first thing he does is to pop into his local bank and make a sizable withdrawal from their locked vault. However his new highflying, or should I say jumping, lifestyle is jeopardised when he’s visited by a Paladin named Roland (Samuel L. Jackson on auto ‘bad-guy’ pilot mode) who wants him dead. From then on Rice has little choice but to team up with a fellow Jumper named Griffin (Jamie Bell) who was orphaned by the Paladins and has spent his life fighting back on behalf of Jumpers.
Also on hand is a rather delicious love interest Millie (Rachel ‘The O.C.’ Bilson) who has a knack of getting herself captured or generally imperilled at the most unhelpful times. So cue much jumping, fighting and pondering the metaphysical unlikelihood of all this dimensional shifting (the plot is based on the Steven Gould novel). There are some superb location shots ranging from The Sphinx, The Eiffel Tower, Griffin’s dessert based hideaway etc – pick of the bunch being an impromptu fight in the Coliseum in Rome.
Jumper slaps a lot of very cool elements together including some top notch special ‘jumping’ effects from the people behind The Matrix but ultimately it doesn’t quite deliver on the sum of its parts. For me Jumper needed a bit more bite and seemed overly restrained by the twelve certificate. It’s possible a lot of ten year olds are going to love this and marvel at how a jumper who could go anywhere chooses to chill with his Playstation 3 when not fighting Paladins but I’m filing this as ‘okay’ rather than great.

DARKMATTERS RATING SYSTEM (all ratings out of maximum 10):

Endorphin Stimulation: öööööö (6)
- Mind bending concept and some fun to be had.

Tasty Action: öööööö (6)
- There's action but it's rarely 'tasty'...

Gratuitous Babeness: ööööööööö (9)
- Rachel Bilson is a hottie!

Mind Blight / Boredom: öööö (4)
- A little but it all tends to crack along at a fair pace

Comedic Value: ööööö (5)
- Some scenes will have you laughing

Arbitrary final rating: öööööö (6)
- Good rather than great but worth watching none-the-less

Liable to make you:
"Wanna be able to 'jump', realise you can't, so instead reach for the travel brochure"

DM Poster Quote (just because I've been playing SingStar with my kids?):
“I get up, and nothing gets me down. You got it tough but I've seen the toughest around.
And I know, baby, just how you feel.
You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real...
Oh can't you see me standing here, I've got my back against the record machine.
I aint the worst that youve seen. Oh cant you see what I mean ?
Might as well jump.
Might as well jump!”


"this isn't a shot from the film but it certainly shows off miss Bilson very nicely!"

Matt Adcock Meets Rachel Bilson - read it here

Darkmatters: H O M E