5th March, 2008

DAVID ADAMS

Jumper (M)

In A Word: Reloaded (again)

NICE PLACE FOR BREAKFAST? David Rice (Hayden Christensen) gets ready to jump. "Like The Matrix, there’s plenty of analogies here than can be drawn in the spiritual sense for Christians and one does get treated to a world travelogue of sorts as the characters leap from one part of the planet to another although this does lead to some rather surreal scenes such as David Rice sitting in a deck chair on top of the Sphinx"

A group of extraordinary humans with the ability to teleport - or “jump”- anywhere on earth who are relentlessly hunted down by a secret group of ‘holy’ warriors known as the 'paladins' who resent their ability (“Only God should have this power", is the refrain of their leader as he zaps another 'jumper'). All of which happens under the nose of the oblivious general public.

Such is the premise of fantasy flick, Jumper, and if it’s a premise that sounds vaguely familiar, then you’re probably recalling one of the growing number of recent films which have adopted a similar theme - extraordinary humans being persecuted for their ability. The Matrix trilogy is perhaps the most obvious - and certainly the classiest - example but there are plenty of others including the X-Men trilogy.

Setting the scene for the story that follows, Jumper has to work through a lot of material quickly to get the audience up to speed and there is a bit of a feeling of being rushed at the start of this film - almost as if its creators wanted to get through the introductions as quickly as possible so we can get to the real action.

Once the introductions are made, the story follows a fairly predictable pattern with action aplenty as David Rice (Hayden Christensen) and his former school friend, Millie Harris (Rachel Bilson) soon run into trouble with the paladins led by the sadistic Roland (Samuel L Jackson). Still, help is at hand in the form of Griffen (Jamie Bell), a jumper whose an old hand at fighting the Paladins and can help fill in the gaps in what Rice - and we, the audience - know about the ongoing battle between the jumpers and paladins.

Like The Matrix, there’s plenty of analogies here than can be drawn in the spiritual sense for Christians and one does get treated to a world travelogue of sorts as the characters leap from one part of the planet to another although this does lead to some rather surreal scenes such as David Rice sitting in a deck chair on top of the Sphinx while none of the tourists and other seen walking below apparently notice.

But, in the end, the creators of Jumper have failed to make the most of the subject matter and one leaves the movie feeling a little short changed. Stay tuned for a sequel - the ending makes that all too clear - but based on the first, we fear it may be a direct to DVD release.

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