Film Review: Jumper

Based on the novel by Steven Gould it might appear that the new science fiction adventure film JUMPER would have something going for it but the pedestrian screenplay by David S. Goyer, Jim Uhis, and Simon Kinberg feels as if its been tinkered with so much that the heart of the story is no longer present replaced instead by the next action set piece where we get to see the special effects fly in a furry.

The story is of David Rice (Hayden Christensen) who as a teenager discovers he has the ability to teleport from one place to the next at will. Over time he learns to control his gifts and live a comfortable life by way of being a petty bank robber. His crimes peek the interests of a government agency and its lead "hunter" Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) who will stop at nothing to kill everyone with this gift of teleporting, which he thinks is an abomination to God. David's exploits and naivety about what he is causes him to also come into contact with Griffin (Jamie Bell) who has made it his mission to hunt down people like Roland who continue to kill his kind. Soon, David finds himself in the middle of a war between two factions where he is left in the middle.

Unbeknownst to David he gets his childhood sweetheart Millie (Rachel Bilson) caught in the middle forcing him to take sides within a battle that has been going on for decades and which brings up tragic events from his past which includes an abusive father and an absent mother (played by Michael Rooker and Diana Lane, respectfully) and which will determine the events of his life.

JUMPER suffers from being only a film that focuses on the action and throws away the story because underneath all the useless action sequences you can tell that there is a complex mythology to the story that didn't translate from book to screen. The film also suffers from the weak performances from the entire cast. Rooker is about the only one that gives a credible performance and he has very little screen time whereas everyone else is not at their top form. Not even Jackson (you is usually capable in just about anything) can resist the drabness of his co-stars.