Jumper (2008)

O Masterpiece
O Excellent
X Rental
O OK
O Mediocrity
O Avoid

Review by Jason Pyles / February 15, 2008

What I am about to confess is absolutely true: I am fearful of flying kites, because I have great anxiety that I will be lifted off the Earth. To cope with this fear, I lie on the ground while kite flying. And, I am even more afraid of being spontaneously teleported somewhere else, particularly faraway places (like the Moon), and not knowing where I am or how to get back home again. Though, I’d probably figure it out pretty quickly if I were on the Moon.

“Jumper” stirred within me the latter phobia. David Rice (Hayden Christensen) seemed to be a normal 15-year-old kid, until one day he fell through a frozen pond and teleported himself into his local library. Neat. But let’s see him try that again. He does, and it works, again and again. And since David’s life at home and school was miserable, he ran away … or should I say “jumped” away.

Yes, this ability is called jumping, and one who jumps is called a jumper. Let’s discuss the movie’s portrayal of this jumping. Though the movie is based on a novel by Steven Gould, the screen depiction of the jumps owes a lot to Nightcrawler’s (Kurt Wagner) teleportation in “X2” (2003), even down to the hazy, residual particle-cloud aftermath and the jumping sound effects.

But this isn’t a criticism; why fix something that’s not broken? In fact, one clever convention in “Jumper” is the way we learn to recognize the jump sound. There are many instances during the movie when we hear the jump but don’t see it. This technique is entertaining, because it adds extra moments of brief suspense and anticipation.

And let’s just be honest and call a spade a spade: “Jumper” is nothing more than a superhero movie. All of the elements are present: You’ve got this loser kid who’s picked on by a bully in front of a compassionate, sweet, should-be girlfriend. You’ve got that awkward discovery-of-powers moment, complete with the mind-numbing “I need to learn how to use these powers” sequence. Oh, and there’s the tiresome “hide my powers from my girlfriend” game. And, of course, you have to have the battles with other powerful beings.

Thankfully, Hayden Christensen doesn’t sport any brightly colored tights. And interestingly, he’s more of an anti-hero (along the lines of Wolverine), because David is rather selfish and arrogant: “Once I was a normal person, a chump, just like you.“ And there’s even a moment during a newscast when David sees people in distress that he could help but doesn’t.

Unfortunately for David, there are jumper police, of sorts. Samuel L. Jackson plays another one of his eccentric roles as Roland, the apparent leader of a group called Paladins, religious fanatics who kill jumpers because such a power is a blasphemous abomination. “Only God should be able to be in all places at all times.” (The word “paladin,” by the way, means a knightly defender of a noble cause.)

But the Paladin plotline is strictly to add antagonism, ensuring battle scenes and action flick criteria. How much better might the movie have been if the screenwriters had simply pursued the pros and cons of being a jumper? If that sounds boring, think of David trying to maintain two jobs in two different countries … or two families!

“Jumper” is rated PG-13, and part of that warning should be for protecting young children from Hayden Christensen’s “Star Wars”-esque acting. In addition, there’s one F-word (and it’s not Fresno) and a gruesome but bloodless stabbing. Interestingly, I don’t recall any guns in “Jumper,” which is an impressive feat for a modern-day action flick.

The fun thing about “Jumper” is that it gets you thinking, wondering where you might jump if you had that ability. And even though the movie actually goes the extra miles to authentically film in various locations around the globe, it still seems like it lacks imagination, somehow. Admittedly, I couldn’t figure out where else I’d have him jump to. The head of the Sphinx is a nice touch, but what about the Moon, even if just for a second? Is he an interplanetary jumper? We’ll never know.

If I were a jumper, I bet I’d end up landing in front of an oncoming train, like the time travelers in that ‘80s TV show called “Voyagers!” But truthfully, I’d just be happy to jump my way out of the inescapability of parking garages, which is another irrational fear of mine.

Directed by Doug Liman
Hayden Christensen / Samuel L. Jackson / Jamie Bell
Fantasy / Adventure 90 min.
MPAA: PG-13 (for sequences of intense action violence, some language and brief sexuality)

U.S. Release Date: February 14, 2008
Copyright 2008: 236