Jumper (2008)

Jumper. Film review. Usually, when i had some knowledge about what to expect in a film, prior seeing it, i usually had the review to it outlined inside my head. Doesn't always hit the spot, of course. But you know, for me, writing, even if it was simply some whine or some attempted review on something i've seen or read is a hard thing to do. And having an outline is always helpful to at least get me started.

In Jumper case, i had prepared for the worst. But it turns out that it's an okay experience. Not nearly good in my book, but better than what i had expected in a first place. Hence, the outline was slightly changed.

Comparing the film with the book was not an option as the film took a very very different direction from the book. The film had been prepped with - perhaps - a sequel in mind, pitching a grand design which doesn't really had a chance to get explained save for two sentences from Griffin (Jamie Bell) about an ensuing war between Jumpers - those guys who could teleported, that even though they kill, they rob the banks, had an honour of being the good guys - and Paladins - those guys who hunt the Jumpers as they believed that they're abomination to what they had believed. It would seems that these Paladins were those same factions that in the Middle Ages hunted and burned the suspected witches in Europe. Thus, they are the bad guys. This war has been raging on since Middle Ages, or so Griffin had said. The book doesn't mention about any Paladins nor any other Jumpers beside David Rice. It was simply deals with David Rice's (Hayden Christensen) personal life and the consequences for having a convenient ability.

Further, the role of David's mother (Diane Lane) was totally different than in the book. By i mean with totally is a night and day difference. But what hurt me the most, is the role of Millie. In the film, Millie is David's school crush. They lived on a same neighborhood. In the book, David was 18 and Millie is three and a half years older when they're met, and their relationship is a bitter-sweet one, with a breakup scene that i rememberd swelled my heart when read about it. In the film, they were just, well, by-the-book pair in love. Bland. And David said that he was in love with her since he was 5. Pffttt, surely, if one believed that when he said so, he was simply not there. In short, i liked the book way better than the film, but, given the circumstances (some reviews i read was saying that the film was too crowded, too many left unsaid, and one even said that the film had twelve side stories that thrown into one feature length film) the film wasn't all that bad. It was mean to be a 'hip' action starred by a young attractive male (though not necessarily great in his acting department, at least he was enough a reason for my female office-mates to rush into theater. Ah, poor young souls), and meant as an entertainment that could passed for 90 minutes of your time. In that sense the film worked. Just don't look further into it.

One of my friend had joked that most of the budget of the film was spent to shoot the Sphinx's head and Colosseum scenes. Ironically, he's probably right. David Rice could jump, teleported to any point on a three-dimensional plane given that he had seen the point of his destination with his own eyes, but quite too often, he choses Sphinx's head and Colosseum as his destination. Sure, these places were maybe Dave's favorite places on Earth. But, if the first scene could worked, second? third? not quite. And Samuel L. Jackson was meant to be a formidable villain, but i feel that he was just passing by. Not enough to give me a lasting impressions. In fact, nothing in this film could give me a lasting impressions. Except of course, Diane Lane who had only two short scenes in the overall film. Man, she's georgeous. David personal life was also left mostly unsaid. His relationship with his father wasn't really compelled nor convinced me that he could at one point simply decided to leave. His relationship with Millie who supposedly his love of his life weren't convincing either. I guess i don't really have to tell you who i held responsible for it.

Doug Liman was supposedly good at directing action films (see: The Bourne Identity and Mr & Mrs. Smith) but somehow i don't see much in this film. Probably because most of the action scenes were CGI-laden scenes that could be awesome for some, but nothing really spectacular according to your loyal reviewer here. He probably confused about whence the film should go. Too many materials to exclusively concentrate with total-actions, yet too few secrets and drama to made it worth while.

All in all, for only 88 minutes, if you really had nothing else to do, you could try this film. Probably you ended up liking it better than i do. Me? I think i'm going to read the second book of the Jumper series.