At press conferences, when people ask that unimaginitive question: “If you had a super power, what would it be?” the most common answer is “to fly” or “invisibility”. Both pretty cool, no doubt, but teleportation has to beat both of them. Doug Liman’s latest film JUMPER takes the idea of people with the power to teleport, throws in some conspiracy theory action, some human drama and a bit of romance to create a film that will appeal to a wide audience. Unfortunately, like many multipurpose tools, such as conditioner shampoo and camera phones, it doesn’t quite do the job as well as a single purpose one. Sci-fi/action fans may tire of the romantic angle, while those going to see Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson (The OC) get all smoochy will probably be confused, or put-off, by the action.
The story, based on a novel by Steven Gould, tells of the exploits of David Rice, a nervous teenager who discovers he can teleport. But like most normal teenagers, he doesn’t use his newfound powers for good and the betterment of mankind. Oh no, he uses it to rob banks and lead a hedonistic lifestyle. He is definitely no hero, or Hiro for that matter. However there are two things that distract him from his life as an international playboy – his childhood sweetheart and a secret organisation called the Paladins, led by a white-haired Samuel L Jackson, that is determined to destroy Jumpers. (The Paladins are more akin to the Spanish Inquisition rather than an anti-pullover division of the fashion police.) David also meets another Jumper called Griffin (Jamie Bell) who is equally determined to rid the world of Paladins.
The concept for the story is strong, as is the mythology and its accompanying ‘science’, although not much of it is revealed in the film. There was a formidable writing team made up of David S Goyer (BATMAN BEGINS, BLADE), Jim Uhls (FIGHT CLUB) and Simon Kinberg (MR AND MRS SMITH, X-MEN 3), and director Doug Liman (BOURNE IDENTITY, MR AND MRS SMITH) has had plenty of experience at shooting international action movies. But as can often happen in cases like this, the whole is less than the sum of the parts. Part of the fault possibly lies in the fact that it feels like an origins story, or the pilot for a TV series. We get introduced to the protagonists and their powers, their adversaries and their motives, and the threads of the ongoing human drama that is family. With a running time a fraction short of an hour and a half, there really wasn’t much time for any solid character development. We know that both the Jumpers have issues with parents leaving them as children, but we never really discover how they got their powers, and we know the Paladins feel it is their God-given duty to kill Jumpers, hence the aforementioned comparison the Inquisition, but that is about all we do know. Although there is something revealed at the end of the film that does nicely set up for a sequel.
Having said all that, the action sequences are good and the special effects, created by the team that devised the bullet time effects for THE MATRIX, are spectacular. Jamie Bell is excellent and, as was also evident from his performance in last year’s HALLAM FOE, proving BILLY ELLIOT was no one-off fluke. Christensen reprises the sullen, love-struck teenager of STAR WARS, but with slightly less anger issues regarding his character’s mother.
Overall, if you ignore some of the gaping plot holes that are bigger than “jump scars”, it is a bit of action-packed entertainment that doesn’t quite live up to its potential, but which could be resolved and expanded upon in a sequel. Maybe they should just give it to Paul Greengrass to work the same magic he did with the BOURNE sequels…
JUMPER (12A) is on general release from February 14 from Twentieth Century Fox.
Review: Chris Patmore