Jumper

Jumper
a movie
IMDb | Netflix | Amazon
Overall Rating: 7/10
Meets Expectations: +1
Apparent Rating: 8/10

The book by Steven Gould was one of my favorites. I had not heard anything about the movie until it was in theaters and being derided by critics. I am not really sure what their problem was. It’s an action movie starring a troubled superpowered teen. But I guess the critics gave similar reviews to X-Men, Spiderman, and just about every other superhero type movie.

Overall I thought the action was good. I thought the filming and directing and editing of the movie was good… considering it’s a movie about people who can jump instantly from one place to the next, I was expecting something closer to a music video played back double-time. I don’t remember the book accurately enough to know if it was well-adapted, but I enjoyed the story portrayed. I thought the story had a good plot with some unexpected twists, which is pretty amazing for an action film since those are usually low-brow, though it could have been a bit more shocking.

The actors in this were not very good. I thought the Jamie Bell role, Griffin, was decent because all it needed was rough and angry. Plus it was comparatively short. I thought Samuel L. Jackson was good because I hated his character. The father, who was the main villain in the book as far as I remember, wasn’t scary at all, that could have been played up a lot more to my mind. David Rice, played by Hayden Christiansen, was awful. Keanu Reeves’s stereotype has nothing on this guy. He’s dark and broody and gets a double-handful of people killed because he chose a girl at seeming-random from his past? The movie indicates that he’s loved her for a long time, but there is no emotion there. There’s nothing to show why he ruins his whole life for that girl. The girl herself is standard cardboard screechy teen girl who demands answers while people are shooting at them. All I was left with about their relationship was wondering whether David Rice regretted going back for her.

I really enjoyed the aspect of the story that was introduced in the movie, about the Paladins who kill Jumpers. I loved how the evil people went around spouting that they were doing “God’s Work”. I was ecstatic about how they killed Jumpers while saying “Only God should have that power!” but I wonder sometimes if other people see the irony. I expect there are a lot of people who honestly believe that to be the case, that special people detract from “the all-mighty” and it is right to kill them so they do not profane by their very existence. It would explain why smart children are derided and then bullied and then beaten to a pulp in public schools. Anyway, it’s a movie that indicates the inherent hypocrisy of Christianity where they kill people while saying “Only God can judge.” So I liked that.

I think it’s too bad they hired a bad actor to star in the movie. There are a number of other talented actors who deserved a shot and we’ve seen Anakin Skywalker supposedly so in love that he destroyed the known universe but looking like a pyjama model mannequin at Sears.