Jumper: Here and There (Use firefox for best display of article)

The film features Hayden Christensen (David Rice), Samuel L. Jackson (Roland), Diane Lane (Mary Rice), Jamie Bell (Griffin), Rachel Bilson (Millie), and Michael Rooker (William Rice). Doug Liman directed, David S. Goyer and Jim Uhls wrote, Lucas Foster, Stacy Maes, and Jay Sanders produced the film(Imdb). Rated PG-13.

Jumper begins with David Rice narrating how he initially discovered his power to teleport himself anywhere in the world. Rice was giving his crush, Millie a gift, and he was interrupted by the derision of Mark Kobold who threw his gift on an unstable frozen lake. Rice, eagerly wanting to repossess the gift for Millie, walks on to the unstable surface of the lake, despite Millie begging him not to.

Once Rice had the gift, moments later the surface cracks and Rice Finds himself trapped beneath the surface of the lake. In sheer anxiety and fear, Rice teleports himself to a library. After gaining an understanding of how his ability works, as a teenager in a troubled home, Rice moves away to the big city, and he begins robbing banks for a living, but little does Rice know that Roland his hunting him.

Rice’s ability to teleport is not so well explained. How was mark endowed with this ability? The film never really explains that, but the film does briefly mention that jumpers have been around since ancient times. How mark inherits the trait of teleportation is an absolute mystery. The absence of the explanation subtracted from the depth of the film, leaving a sense that the movie was somehow incomplete because not enough is known about the ability, and where the Jumpers and those who are hunting the Jumpers originate.

The pace of the film was steady, and the lag factor was minimal. Following the plot of the film was not difficult, and the script was not spectacular but it got the job done. The action sequences were ok, with the exception where Rice teleports a portion of Millie’s apartment complex.

Hayden Christensen’s laid-back way of acting seemed well suited for the role of David Rice. Speaking of characters, Griffin was very charismatic in his cynical and sarcastic ways, and while Griffin and Rice were together in the same scene Griffin seemed to have made more of an impression because his sarcasm and cynicism was attractive. Samuel L. Jackson was great as Roland, and the white hair along with his stern character was consistent with classic “bad ass” Samuel L. Jackson.

Over all this film is simply entertaining, nothing spectacular, and the reviews for this film were not on the positive side. According to Metacritic.com, based on 28 reviews the film had an average score of 36 out of 100, and according to Rottentomatoes.com, out 92 reviews only 15% gave the film a positive rating. Stay tuned, movieporium.blogspot.com

Jumper