David is a young man who discovers that he has the uncanny ability to teleport, or ‘jump’ anywhere, at anytime, instantly. He puts his new-found skills to the test leading a carefree, wealthy lifestyle where anything is possible. Spending his time enjoying the finer things in life, from sunbathing on top of the pyramids in Egypt to surfing in Fiji, David’s idyllic world is interrupted when he realises that his talent is not as unique as he first thought. Pursued by members of a mysterious organisation, whose mission in life is to destroy jumpers, David finds himself at the centre of a war that has been raging for thousands of years...

Every once in a while a movie comes along which the critics almost universally hate, but the general public usually enjoys. Jumper is one such movie. On it's cinematic release the majority of reviews were pretty vicious, yet I still have no idea why they were so harsh. Even though it's not based on a comic book series, it has the feel of that genre. And I certainly found it more engaging and entertaining than the majority of movies in a similar ilk - I'm thinking Hulk, Iron Man and even Spider-Man (I seem to be the only person on the planet who thought the later was pretty average).

The characters in Jumper are some of the most believable and refreshingly original that have ever graced a movie of this sort. The main characters are more three dimensional than cinema goers are usually offered in a superhero movie. David Rice (Hayden Christensen) never once thinks to use his powers for the good of mankind. Even when he sees a terrible world disaster on the TV, he ignores it. Roland Cox (Samuel L. Jackson) is not your usual villain - in any other movie he would be the good guy. In fact, it's this general blurring of a cliched true hero and villain that makes this movie a lot more enjoyable.

The locations are impressive, particularly the Colosseum in Rome. This was partly filmed on location and partly on a sound stage. It was also interesting to learn, on the extras, that this movie was the first film to be allowed to shoot inside the Colosseum in about 40 years.

The only real part of the movie that I didn't enjoy was the ridiculously overly long fight sequence that sees two of the characters leaping all over the world.

Extras are pretty impressive and include an audio commentary by director Doug Liman, writer/producer Simon Kinberg and producer Lucas Foster. It was interesting to hear that a scene was cut that involved the revelation that Hitler had a jumper. Also, the ending was originally going to be different in order to tie-in with the snow globe from the start of the movie.

We also get Jumpstart: David's Story (8 min animated graphic novel which explores David's back story a little more); Jumping Around the World (11 min examination of the movie's locations); Doug Liman's Jumper: Exposed (35 min, 33 sec behind-the-scenes featurette); Making an Actor Jump (7 min, 35 sec look at the visual effects employed for the jumping sequences); Jumping From Novel To Film: The Past, Present and Future of Jumper (8 min, 07 sec featurette which looks at the origins of the movie as well as the possible future. It also interviews the book's author, who has an interesting take on the reworking of his original idea); Deleted Scenes (11 min, 12 sec worth of cut scenes, including an interesting look at Cox's home life); Previz: Future Concepts (4 min, 29 sec rough computer animated sequence of a possible plot idea for a future movie).

If you go with it, Jumper is a pretty entertaining romp.

7

Pete Boomer