by The Film Blogger

Created on: September 07, 2009   Last Updated: September 08, 2009

Doug Liman, director of Jumper, is no stranger to action, and serves well to throw the viewer straight into the film's high concept. It is not, however, without flashbacks; it promptly diverts to show a young David Rice in the most cliched of scenarios, where he is humiliated by the stereotypical bully whilst defending the honour of the doting love of his life. Soon enough, the lad finds that he possesses the power to somehow teleport anywhere, although we have no idea why or how; we are as dumbfounded as our young protagonist.

Jumper's hark through the back story is perhaps slightly cumbersome, although the film is by no means a redundant effort. Jumper paints David (Hayden Christensen) as something of an immature hedonist; he teleports to other countries to surf, he goes to London to pick up women, and he is met with opposition by Samuel L Jackson; a Terminator-like G-man psychopath, who goes about killing every "jumper", driven by some sort of divine complex.

The film breaks convention in having these two confront early into the picture; a welcome change from the ordinary. The fight is inventive, and Jackson, with his white hair and over-the-top get up, fits in well as a comic book-esque villain.

What makes Jumper more interesting than similar attempts, and even some comic book films, is that Hayden's immaturity gets the better of him on several occasions; he is hot-headed, he is vindictive, and thus, his characterisation is authentic of many young men of his age. He owes little to Peter Parker, but more to the likes of The Punisher.

David reacquaints himself with his old flame, Millie (the lovely Rachel Bilson), although reaffirming their rapport so quickly seems rather forced for the sake of the narrative, and the speed with which they jet off to Rome is only less ridiculous than the speed with which they remove their clothes and rekindle their love. Warning; you may wish to place your fingers in your ears at this point in the film, for the soundtrack at this point declines into a dire, saccharine, bubble-gum pop effort.

The film does spend too long indulging in David's fancies with Millie, yet it eventually slams into gear as Griffin (Jamie Bell), a fellow jumper, shows up as Hayden's unwilling sidekick. Unfortunately, once he is introduced, Liman throws us headlong into another caper, in which David must extricate himself and Millie from another scrape, a scrape caused by nothing more than David's own romantic stupidity. Flawed characters are welcome,

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