Directed by Doug Liman
Starring Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Samuel L Jackson and Rachel Bilson
Review by: Alasdair

Jumpers have the whole world at their feet. Born with the ability to teleport, they can go anywhere, do anything, no rules apply to them. David Rice found that out the day he left his hometown behind forever and likes nothing better than enjoying the high life with seemingly no effort and no consequences. But an encounter with Roland (Jackson), leader of the Paladins, an organisation who have hunted Jumpers for centuries leads David to uncomfortable truths about his own past and a realisation that there are always consequences.

Adapted from Stephen Gould’s book, and pretty loosely too, by all accounts, this is the sort of film Doug Liman seems to revel in doing. Tokyo, the Coliseum, New York, the jungles of Brazil, the North Pole, Chechnya and that really nice hotel in the Middle East that looks like a sailing ship (By the way, capitalise that phrase and it’s the hotel’s actual name all turn up. Manly discussions are had, violence is committed, a driven young man with no past does impossible things.

Sounds familiar? Well, that’s because it is and not simply because of Liman’s work on the The Bourne Supremacy. The massively retooled script keeps very little from the original novel and ramps up the action, the end result being empty but by and large, pretty fun.

The action sequences are, as they desperately needed to be, astounding, in particular a brutal fight between Griffin (Bell) and two Paladins in the Coliseum and Griffin and David’s frantic chase across the world in the film’s final half hour. There are some nice ideas sketched out too, ranging from the hint that some Jumpers develop an affinity for certain types of objects and can Jump them, to the war with the Paladins and a hint that Jumpers are far, far more widespread than anyone thought.

But that’s just the problem. They’re sketched. There are a good four concepts that the film hurtles past which have infinite potential for stories in their own right and instead, all we get in essence, is Liman setting the pieces on the board. Don’t get me wrong, if this was a pilot for a TV show then I’d be calling it the hit of the year but as a film, safe in the knowledge that the sequel, should there be one, is a minimum of eighteen months away it’s a massively frustrating watch.

There’s a lot to enjoy here, don’t get me wrong with Christensen a likably normal leading man and Bell wonderful as the spiky, bitter, clearly demented Griffin. Jackson and Bilson in particular are far less well served, Bilson’s genuine wit and comic timing reduced to simpering girl-in-distress but there’s not a weak link in the chain. Apart from the script.

If you can cope with a film this fast, this ideas heavy and somehow this empty then Jumper is for you. If you want something with back story, then this is not a trip you’ll want to take.