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Hayden Christensen travels to all sorts of places and gets
hunted by bad guys in Jumpers.
Of all the superpowers one can think of, teleportation has to be the
coolest. Imagine being able to close your eyes and instantly
transport yourself anywhere, from a few feet to the other
side of the world. Throw in a love interest and a few bad
guys and you have Jumper, an entertaining adventure
with cool visual effects and action scenes that include
London
buses crashing in the Egyptian desert.
Hayden Christensen (Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith) plays
David Rice, a man in his early 20s who uses teleportation to
rob banks and see the world. All it takes for him to travel
is to think about where he wants to go and he immediately
gets there. He’s a bit arrogant — in narration, he calls the
audience “chumps” for not having his ability — but he does
make the “jumping” enviable. One person who certainly envies
David is Roland (Samuel L. Jackson), the well-financed
leader of the Paladin Organization, which has sworn to kill
all “jumpers” regardless of the consequences.
After getting attacked by Roland and his cattle prod — apparently
electricity stuns jumpers so they can’t teleport — David
returns to his hometown of Ann Arbor, Mich., where he finds
his high school sweetheart (Rachel Bilson) and whisks her
off to Rome for an abrupt vacation. They travel the
traditional way, in an (gasp!) airplane, but while visiting
the Colosseum, he and another jumper,
Griffin
(Jamie Bell, Billy Elliot), are attacked by Paladins
and David is officially drawn into the war.
Director Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) keeps the energy
high and uses the jumping creatively (a “whooshing” sound
every time someone jumps keeps things fun), never allowing
the film to become a one-trick pony. However, the script by
David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls and Simon Kinberg could use some
fleshing out, as character motivations are rarely made
clear, particularly regarding the Paladins and why they want
to kill all jumpers. Jealousy is one thing, but where and
how they get their assets remains a mystery. Perhaps more
explanations are offered in the novel by Steven Gould, on
which the movie is based.
It’s understandable that an action movie will defy logic, but it’s
less forgivable when the story doesn’t respect the
limitations it creates for itself. For example, toward the
end, David and
Griffin teleport and fight at random places all over the
world, ending in a war zone in Chechnya. If they have to
think about where they’re going in order to get there, how
and why would Chechnya come to mind? Don’t tell me they make
the coincidental connection of fighting their own war while
there’s a war in
Chechnya
— neither of these guys is bright or humane enough to have
Caucasian politics on his mind.
In fairness, logic has nothing to do with the effectiveness and
energy of Jumper, and it’s almost always an egregious
error to bash an action movie for not making sense. If we
did, then we may as well banish all suspension of disbelief
and just watch documentaries, although even those are prone
to hyperbole.
So don’t hop, skip or jump to this one. But if you do casually make
your way to the theater to see it, you will not be
disappointed.
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