Hayden Christensen jumps from the Star Wars universe to this film based on a series of books by Steven Gould. The film’s obviously set up as the first of a series since it feels like there are lots of loose ends and who knows if another adventure is in the works.
As a youth, David Rice (Max Thieriot), accidentally discovered that he had the power to teleport from place to place. He decides to run away from his alcoholic father (Michael Rooker) and use his newfound power to enrich himself.
It’s now eight years later and David (now played by Hayden Christensen) lives a life of leisure and easy money thanks to his powers. He’s tracked down by Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) and barely escapes his attack by jumping back to his old bedroom.
The accidental visit home reminds him of Millie (Rachel Bilson, played by AnnaSophia Robb as a youth), a girl he had a crush on in high school, he decides to get to know her again and take her around the world as she dream about in high school. He uses his money from jumping to take her to Rome.
While in Rome he meets fellow jumper Griffin (Jaime Bell), who tells him that Roland heads a group called Paladin that tracks down and kills jumpers. Now the group is after Millie to use her to track down and kill David, but can David jump in time to save both her and himself?
The film might be a bit silly, but it does make some jumps to some great international locations. It seems that no expense was spared as the crew traveled to Rome, New York, and Egypt.
The special effects are also top notch as the computer generated jumps and creative ways in which they are used are also interesting. There are several plot points that are only hinted upon in the film.
Diane Lane is especially given a short amount of screentime in the thankless role of David’s mother and her character only poses more questions than she answers. Hayden Christensen is rather wooden as the lead, but Jaime Bell hits all the right notes as the somewhat mad jumper. Samuel L. Jackson collects another paycheck with the villain’s role, but he snarls his way through in the role.
My kids liked the show and didn’t care about such things as plot and acting. They were mesmerized by the action and special effects. You may be too if you don’t think too much about the lack of some resolutions in the plot.
Jumper is presented in 1080p anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary from director Doug Liman, writer/producer Simon Kinberg, and producer Lucas Foster. The rest of the special features are presented in high-definition.
First up is a picture-in-picture commentary called “Around the World” that pops up behind-the-scenes bits or information about the locations that are being jumped too. The same information is presented in a format that doesn’t require the picture-in-picture profile (1.1).
I suppose for those whose Blu-ray players are not the right profile. It’s presented as a map and you pick the location to see the special features. Since I had some playback issues with my older profile player I think this is a nice touch (I’ve since moved up to a PS3) and kudos to Fox for doing it.
The 8 minute “Jumpstart: David’s Story” is an animated graphic novel about David’s backstory. The 35 minute “Doug Liman’s Jumper Uncensored” is a making of documentary. The 7-minute “Making the Jump” goes into the special effects used in the jumping sequences.
The 8 minute “Jumping from Novel to Film” that interviews Gould and explores the novels and how they made the transition to the screen. Next are 11 minutes of deleted scenes and 4 minutes of animatics.
If you have D-Box motion capacity then the film has that option. The second disc features a downloadable version that you can put on your PC or portable device.
Jumper feels like sci-fi lite, but it does entertain. I guess we’ll have to wait to see if there will be any more jumps. Personally, I’d like to see them, but with this film expect to be hungry for meatier fare in an hour.
Jumper [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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