Jumper

Plot synopsis:
Shy teen David Rice (Max Theriot) has a crush on pretty Millie (AnnaSophia Robb), who dreams of travelling the world. When he surprises her with a small gift, a snow globe of the Eiffel Tower, teasing bully Mark (Jesse James) grabs it and throws it out onto the icy surface of the river. Determined, David ventures out on the ice and retrieves it, waving ... then falls through the ice and is swept away from the opening by the swift current. He is certain to die in the freezing water, without air ... and suddenly finds himself lying prone in the library between the bookcases, in a huge gush of gallons of water, gasping and alive.He trudges home, soaking wet, where his father (Michael Rooker) chews him out. David enters his room, putting a chain on the door ... but when his angry father bursts it open, there is only a swirl of wind - David has vanished. He finds himself in the damp aisle of the darkened library, and realises he has teleported there yet again. It dawns on him that he finally has a way to change his life, to escape his situation, the same way his mother abandoned the family when he was five. He teleports home and retrieves a small stash of money and a few belongings. But before he leaves town, he stops outside Millie's house. Millie is not consoled by her mother's arms; she is sure that David is dead. She hears a noise outside, steps cautiously out into the yard ... and finds the snowglobe sitting on the swingset. From this she knows he is alive, but he does not respond to her calls.The next day he is on a bus to the city, where he rents a cheap room. He practices teleporting in the park, learning how to control his power. Then he cases a bank, and robs it by teleporting directly in to the vault in the middle of the night. He laughs as he realises his bag isn't big enough to take away all the money ... teleports back to his shabby hotel for another bag ... and repeats this until his room is awash in money and he lies on a bed of it. However, the mysterious Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) appears at the bank investigation, claiming to be from the NSA, remarkably unsurprised by this locked door robbery. It is evident that he knows about teleport abilities, and is part of a powerful group that wants to find this bank robber.Years have gone by, and David (Hayden Christenson) has an expensive city apartment, papered with pictures of his world travels, and a small vault room full of money. He enjoys the pleasures of life wherever they are: surfing in Fiji, lunching atop the Sphinx in Egypt, picking up a girl in a British pub. He phases from one spot to another in his home, rather than walking even two paces, and disregards the troubles of ordinary people shown on television trapped in rising floodwaters.His peace is disturbed by the arrival of Roland, whose electrical weapon and wires prevent David from teleporting. We learn that Roland's mission in life is to destroy jumpers (people who teleport), for "only God should have the power to be everywhere." Desperate, David manages somehow to get away, teleporting back to his boyhood bedroom. His father is alerted to his presence, and comes to the bedroom door, begging him to stay. David teleports away as his father forces the door open.His idyllic lifestyle disrupted, he decides to see his lost love, Millie (Rachel Bilson). He finds her still in the same town, working at a bar. His old nemesis Mark (Teddy Dunn) manages to start a fight once again ... and in a rush David teleports with him into a bank vault, then leaves him there.Returning to the bar, he asks Millie to go with him to Rome. She is shocked, but as it's her lifelong dream she can only accept. When they get to Rome, he enjoys her delight as he shows her around the ancient city, but is balked when they find the Coliseum closed. Rather than take "no" for an answer and return another day, he goes around the corner ... and when she catches up, he is holding a gate open to admit her. He continues to open doors from the inside as they pursue their private tour ... until they try to go down to the floor of the stadium. Suddenly he is surprised to meet another jumper, Griffin (Jamie Bell), who informs him that he's not the only one and that there is a whole group of people like Roland, paladins, who want to kill jumpers ... and two of them suddenly turn up. Griffin is prepared to fight their methods, and eventually subdues the attackers and teleports away. David follows Griffin's teleport to his lair, asking questions. He is bewildered, and Griffin's brief explanations (such as explaining he will drop a paladin into some sharks) do nothing to enlighten him. Griffin explains that David cannot afford to have a girlfriend, family, or friends ... that they are all dead, that the paladins will kill them to get to him.David returns to Millie and agrees to leave, and they get away from officials inside the Coliseum - only to be detained outside. David doesn't jump - he tells Millie to go back to the hotel, but she refuses. Hours later, David is still being questioned by the police, who are holding him and his passport until some other authorities arrive. Suddenly, a woman (Diane Lane) appears, telling him to get out and abandon his girl, telling him how many minutes he has to escape. He recognises her from his childhood pictures - she is his mother!! He finds Millie and takes her to the airport, then explains sorrowfully that he cannot go back home with her.In the meantime, Roland has been brought in to talk to Mark, whom David left in a bank vault. Mark, exhausted from repeatedly telling his story to disbelieving officials, explains who David is, where they are from, everything he knows. Seizing this opportunity, Roland visits David's father.David returns to ask Griffin more questions, and this time the risk to his family sinks in. He teleports to his childhood home, and finds his father on the floor. Crying, he teleports his father to a hospital emergency room, trying to get help for him. He teleports to see Mark in jail, asking what he told Roland. Mark says he told him everything.David realises that Millie will be in danger as soon as she gets off the plane in the USA, but when he asks Griffin for help, Griffin refuses. David follows Griffin through jumps, trying to convince him. Griffin swipes a car and they ride together, Griffin teleporting the car through traffic as it suits him. They exchange some bits of information: the paladins killed Griffin's parents when he was five, and David's mother left when he was five. David asks about teleporting the car, and Griffin laughingly tells of a jumper who tried to teleport a building - he died in the attempt. Finally, Griffin agrees to help David for a "limited engagement" - the many drawings of Roland in Griffin's home make it clear that he has a grudge against this paladin.The arrive in the USA - and Millie's flight already arrived an hour before. He teleports to her apartment, hoping to get her out quickly - but Roland and his attack squad arrive before he can begin to explain. He manages to teleport her to Griffin's lair - and Griffin chews him out for it, because Roland can directly follow his teleport! Griffin prepares to abandon his home, but when Roland appears an epic battle begins. At one point Griffin teleports a bus at Roland, who manages to dive underneath it as it bounces. David is trapped, webbed up in a corner of the room by Roland's electrical wiring to be disposed of later. As Millie frees David, her anger at the situation and fear of his strange power are evident. She demands that he just take her home, and leave her alone. Naturally, she is soon captured and held hostage.Griffin plans to take a bomb to Millie's apartment to kill Roland ... however, this will involve killing everyone else there, including Millie. David doesn't want that, so they two of them teleport around the world, fighting over the bomb, then over the detonator, falling from the Empire State Building and appearing in a war zone, where David finally traps Griffin in some fallen power lines as effective as Roland's traps.David returns to Millie's apartment, knowing he's walking into the lion's den. They use electric wires all around him to tie him down, anchoring them to the walls. David has Millie move close to him, and, remembering Griffin's story, David doesn't try to move the whole building - just the parts attached to the anchor wires. As he uses his power, the building begins to rip apart, and the roof shatters as the apartment disappears out from under it.David teleports Roland to a cave and leaves him there, saying he should be grateful he didn't drop him at the sharks. David vanishes, and Roland walks to the cave opening - finding himself up an isolated cliff in the Grand Canyon.It is winter, and we see David walk up to an expensive home and knock. A teenage girl (Kirsten Stewart) answers the door, followed moments later by David's mom, who sends her daughter to her room. David is there to find out what it all means, and why she left him as a child. She explains that she is a paladin, and when he made his first teleport at age 5 she could not kill him, so she left him because she loved him. He thinks she should do more - and she explains that she is, right now, because she's giving him a head start. He realises he will not get more from her.He leaves the house, and Millie meets him outside. He asks where she wants to go, and she says, "Surprise Me." They teleport away.

Tags: action, murder, flashback

Review:
Instead of taking time to develop anything in the movie, Jumper just whizzes by at an incredible speed, setting up characters, ideas and plot points without expanding or resolving or developing them.
The whole thing is made to kick start a franchise of films where the story would be explained in more detail, but come on man, when you pay to see a film, you expect to see a clearly defined beginning, a middle and a satisfying end- something that Jumper isn't too concerned with.Another problem that ties in with the films lack of depth, are the actors.
Only Jamie Bell gives it some effort- his cynical Irish jumper would have made a much better lead character than Anakin.However, while the film is pretty shallow there are some glimmers of goodness.
The action sequences are fun, fast and frequent, the visual effects are cool and there's never a dull moment due to the films super fast pace.It might sound like Im being too harsh on the film but its hard not to be when the movies concept is so great and the end product is as underdeveloped as this.
I saw this film last night, and i must say i was pleasantly surprised, I have been reading lots of comments on IMDb to get an idea of what to expect, lots of people were negative about the acting performance of Hayden Christensen, well i don't agree, I think he handled the character in an interesting fashion, considering his character left home at the age of 16 or so, raised himself and used his abilities to support himself in a wild and fun manner.
So he is not your average run of the mill kid, nobody knows what he can do and he can basically do and go where he wants, creating an aloof type of character, so under these circumstance i think his performance was okay, maybe not worthy of an academy award but totally interesting to watch, I enjoyed his intensity.
I think that a lot of people who comment on IMDb have no idea of what goes into making a movie, but just like to be critical as possible.
It's a fun concept and with and imagination like mine the possibilities of such a power are unlimited.I did feel that you never really connected with the characters on an emotional level and the plot was very straight forward and basic.
You go to a movie like this to be entertained for a bit, not for the intellectual stimulation, and both are valid forms of entertainment (unlike what other reviewers may imply).Besides, Samuel Jackson is great and I always like his roles and having Rachel Bilson for eye candy doesn't hurt either..
Stunning effects, swooping camera angles, and an interesting concept more than make up for the film's defects - namely Hayden Christensen - reprising the gloomy, wounded, misunderstood, petulant anti-hero role he played so ineffectively in the Star Wars prequels.The other performances were sound (Samuel L Jackson's hair included) with Jamie Bell particularly outstanding as the nervy Griffin.
The end seemed more like a beginning to me that he was able finally to come to grips with his purpose.I think they picked the right people for the parts, it was certainly believable to me and seemed more like a preview of what is yet to come, perhaps if there is a sequel to come, more of the why's will shine through and will give a clearer definition, but this movie as is, certainly was not what many would expect but it did make a point of what happens when you just go out there and live without a care..
I will say this: some of the action scenes at the end are the best of the movie and worth hanging around for, especially since the film is less than an hour-and-a-half.
As "Spiderman," Parker's creed is "With great power, comes great responsibility." With Rice, it's more like "get everything you can, and screw 'em!" I make the Spiderman analogy because Rice has super powers with the teleportation thing.This is not a "superhero" movie, though, because the lead character is not a "hero," in any sense of the word.
He's a "paladin," as is someone else in the film, which is a surprise.Since none of the characters were anyone you could root for, I tried to just sat back and enjoy the special-effects and the scenery, which were the positive points of the movie.
We get quick tours of the world, from the Grand Canyon to Rome, and the special-effects of the teleporters "jumping" from one location to another was cool.There was a love interest but little chemistry between David and "Millie" (Rachel Belson), a pretty but another annoying character.So there you have it: the good and the bad.
Millie (Rachel Bilson) acts and reacts like a normal girl whose not a comic book fan or someone who doesn't entertain the idea that teleportation is possibility.
Griffin (Jamie Bell) is a bit a dick and David Rice (Hayden Christensen) doesn't even seem to realize what's happening to him, he lives in his bubble and doing his own thing - like most people would in his case.The film does have its faults and for me there two main problems: The first, I've never read the book but from what I understand in the movie, a Jumper can withstand a large amount of electricity - higher than normal people do.
But some of the hits David got in the action sequences should have killed him if he's physically like any human, which seem to be the case and would have been a great weakness to have for the character, a regular guy who can teleport.
The second problems is the ending of the film, it's not the best, I could have come up with something better.Anyway, I liked Jumper when it came out, even though I always knew that there wouldn't be a sequel.
Okay, here it is.....The truth about "jumper"Jumper is not really a film at all, though you could be forgiven for thinking differently after watching the intense trailers.You see it starts like a real movie with real actors and a real story.
In fact the start gave me a deep feeling of "hell yeah, I'm gonna enjoy this" But then comes Christensen, sporting a monotonous voice that could put David Duchovny to shame and looking nothing at all like his younger and better acted character from the first scene.
Well i did't get one so neither do you.The "making of" documentary holds a lot more plot than the movie itself but still didn't give any answers as to why an angry, white haired Sam Jackson is chasing a super serious and ultra talentless Christensen over all the world vaguely yelling something about god.
It offers no explanation for Christensen's powers or why he is still employed in the film industry and not doing voice-overs for the robots.and above all it does not in any way explain why people spent money on this utter whiff of fart called Jumper.CONCLUSION: Jumper is not a movie but a boring dry piece of dog turd, cleverly disguised with expensive special effects..
All in all a very rushed script and any promise that the movie had was killed off by the scripwriters focusing too much attention on making the movie feel like something taken out of a Michael Bay diary.Special effects are really cool (i.e. the very impressive London bus scene), but it is unable to cover the skin-deep script, which really could have been much more inventive, but seemed to only scratch any surface of the possibility set out by the basic plot..
its difficult to not fall asleep in cinema,and when i walked out of the cinema, i'm sure my hard earned money and my time were wasted.maybe many persons were interested by the trials, actually i just wanted to see Hayden Christensen on a big screen.
Some scenes are not really necessary, and incredibly bad, you don't really care that much about it's characters, the end , just like the movie itself, is poor.The acting is also very bad, Christensen can hold being the main character, he's not good enough, Jackson, like I said, doesn't save the movie, but he's OK.
The rules for your standard action-fantasy are fairly simple: take a hero with superhuman ability, construct a snappy little storyline around him with the relevant moral issues, throw in a pretty girl, an interesting nemesis, perhaps a sidekick of some variety, and there you have it.Using this vague format, it is easy to see why Jumper fails to the extreme despite the hype and promising trailers.The plot, in a nutshell, is riddled with loose ends and lacks a satisfying conclusion.
like many, I'd watched the trailer and gone oooh, only to find the jumping effects tiresome, the characters wooden and dull and a complete lack of good or bad, the main character being someone who I would've rather punched than watched, Hayden Christenson is the Keanu Reeves for the next generation.
The script appeared written by 10 year olds with H.C spending a lot of his time either looking petulant and mute or at times when urgent communication was needed he'd just look around like a startled chimp!!Adding to this I found the film just sped through his life and they lost a lot of good opportunities to give some ideas of jumping from the past ala highlander and the like..and regarding the whole trapping process..what did they do before electricity????
Unfortunately, having seen the previews, read some reviews and then inevitably seeing the film itself, I can honestly say that my eyes have clouded my judgment and as a warning to all who are thinking of (pun intended) jumping to see this cinematic fart, you'll see what I mean.Oh, and did I mention I want my money back?.
Hayden, Jamie, Rachel, and the rest of the cast did a fair job in creating the identities of their characters.Jumper lacked certain qualities at some points but it didn't have a massive affect on the overall performance of the movie.
The changes throughout the movie most likely will disappoint a few viewers who have read the book, but the changes were in some way, understandable.The changes were to create a more action packed plot.Jumper is a good movie to watch if you're ever interested into these kinds of movies..
When a film provides an interesting plot, cool special effects, and an all-star cast I automatically have high expectations, as any self-respecting movie goer should.
His job is to travel the globe and kill "Jumpers" like David because quote "only God should have his power." Granted, Roland's silver hair makes him look like a larger version of Sisqo, he makes up for it by carrying a large knife.Now, at this point, I was pretty excited for the direction this film was going in.
However, despite a strong start, the film quickly runs off track.The story turns out average at best, there is no character development whatsoever, the on screen romance of Christensen and Bilson is far fetched, and a few of the scenes were so incredibly stupid it was laughable.
The world of the Jumpers and the Paladins has enormous potential, maybe next time the acting and story will measure up to the visual effects..
Their head honcho is an obviously cash-strapped Samuel L Jackson with one of his more out-there looks yet, a cropped albino haircut while the story also takes in for no other reason I can think of than the Transatlantic take, an uneasy alliance with another "jumper", a rebellious young Londoner, played in modern-day "Artful Dodger" style by Jamie Bell.There's a sub Darth Vader twist at the conclusion too, involving Christiansen's long lost Paladin mother and certainly plenty room for a sequel (which I see from IMDb notes is currently in production).
The special effects are great but the whole jumping thing gets really old really fast.So this film turns out to be a huge let-down, lackluster, disappointing action film by Doug Liman.
One thing I can't complain about are the special effects, they're indeed very well done.Jumper isn't the type of action film that relies on its stars, none of them are really mentioned in the trailer and it becomes more evident when you realise that a major star like Diane Lane, who usually headlines a film, is taking a smaller secondary role.
One might think that Samuel Jackson's track record might help get people to see it, since he's starred in a lot of big film, yet he still has to prove himself as a box office draw on his own, as recent high-profile attempts like Snakes on a Plane and Black Snake Moan have failed to bring in the audiences expected.
This is again one of those movies where i think a little tweaking of the plot,a little more thought put into character development,a little more responsive acting by the actors could have made this movie better.My imagination went wild hearing the concept of the story.I began to fantasize a lonely hero with the ability to transport himself anywhere puts to use his gift to rescue the world.I know it sounds cliché but when you throw in the fact that the guy could "jump anywhere" opens a Pandora's box of exciting possibilities Sadly the writers couldn't do much justice to a potential story.I didn't understand whether the film tried too hard or was a half hearted effort.The most obvious flaw was the mediocre acting.( There's laughing in my head).It made Hayden look like a complete confused fool.Poor Millie had nothing else to do but being pushed around by revengeful Palladins and love hungry jumpers.Also the storyline seemed like being taken out from a daytime action from cartoon network.No character development,no stress on the story and the concept,and no concern whatsoever of audience's expectations makes this one a mediocre movie.It could have been but was simply not impressive.
People seem to like to ding Hayden Christensen, but he and his character are a decent match, though as lazy as they make him out to be in the movie, he'd be a blimp in no time..
This idea of teleporting or translocation for a movie has been around a long time and could have looked at the immense ramifications, consequences, insights the use of a power like this might have.
After seeing it I'm quite sad to say i was not very happy with it, it was empty and had very little back story, Hayden Christensen was very wooden and it felt like everything was rushed which frustrated me a little, after about 10 Minutes the story was in full flow and because of that it was just to fast, i found my self asking why does Rowland want David dead and also where is the back story for those people, the high points are Jamie bell and Sam Jackson for me, if it wasn't for the them i doubt i would of even gave it 5 out of 10 bell wasn't introduced till maybe a little to late but he added a lot and i just enjoyed Jackson's part even though with the lack of his back story he did a good job with the role, despite all of this i would recommend you to see this purely to make your own mind up i have a feeling this film is going to be very Marmite for the causal viewer your either going to love it or hate it,.
(I liked the Billy Elliot guy, and Samuel L Jackson, but skywalker was kind of average I think, just a pretty face) It's a pity because the idea was there, the story was there, but the film didn't rise.
Extremely boring special effects, a bad script combined with even worse acting makes it one of the worst movies of the year so far.
The storyline was awful, it was basically a cops and robbers superhero film, with no actual story.The only reason this film didn't get 1/10 is because of rachel bilson, and it did show the colosseum in a lot of its glory.The love story between the two characters was pretty poor, i think the director didn't know whether to make this a romantic film, an action film, or a superhero movie, none of which it did well.To some up jumper it was basically one group of people trying to stop another group of people from just teleporting around the world...
The young actors are really convincing (Well, Hayden Christensen was a lot more convincing than Rachel Bilson, but at least I spent a good evening because of both of them), action scenes every minute and a really great bad guy (Samuel L.
Their job is to kill all "jumpers" because "only God can be in all places at the same time." Or something like that.Doug Liman, director of adrenaline-pumping movies such as "The Bourne Identity" and "Mr.
And so goes the notion of watching Jackson kick Hayden Christensen's rear.Now here we get to see what could have happened, since the two team up again in director Doug Liman's Jumper, a movie so filled with X-Men's Nightcrawler-styled effects of teleportation, that it doesn't look special anymore.
I loved the idea of having Hayden Christensen playing the main character who is a jumper.
The visual effects were not bad, but the story...went so fast..and the acting...was just less than expected...you feel like there was no purpose for this movie.
I certainly hope this fad is short lived, because I miss good action movies.I understand the idea is to make you feel like part of the action but I think it goes way too far and makes the film unwatchable.Someone needs to show Doug Liman how to shoot smooth at least some of the time..
The truth is, most of us would probably be just like Hayden Christensen's Jumper character and use our powers for selfish gain.