princessaisly | JUMPER [review] (Reply)

I really wanted to see this movie because I have always really loved Hayden Christianson. I know that his acting was stiff and wooden in the last Star Wars movie, but I honestly believe that was due to George Lucas' direction for the future of the character. Plus I loved Life As A House. And I love Rachel Bilson, because Summer was my favorite character on The OC, well Summer and Seth. I hated The Last Kiss, but I blame that more on Zach Braff than her.

So I expected a lot out of this movie. I was hoping Hayden would redeem himself from Star Wars 3, because I have so far refused to watch that movie Awake. Rachel hasn't made enough movies for her to have to redeem herself for. Just that last season of The OC.

I was disappointed. The movie was okay for mindless entertainment, but other than that it didn't hold much merit. Diane Lane barely made a cameo, having only two scenes and about five lines. Samuel L. Jackson's literal silver hair almost made it hard for me to concentrate on anything while he was on screen. I normally love me some Sam Jackson but ever since Snakes On A Plane I've had a hard time with him. Black Snake Moan being the exception, and that could have easily gone bad. His acting was superb, as always, but his character was just one more boring 'done before' character in a whole 'seen it before' movie.

The movie promised something with it alluring poster of a solitary figure atop the Sphinx in Egypt. I had hoped to see something new and exciting, perhaps a new version of an old story. Instead it was just a highly stylized version of something I feel like I have already seen.

This is another way that I think that the Harry Potter films and the Lord of the Rings trilogy have ruined fantasy movies. I compare almost all fantasy films with these and always find them lacking. Harry Potter is by far the epitomy of all things magical and has set the bar so incredibly high that other movies always fall short. Same with LotR. They've ruined films like Eragon for me. While all these movies could be considered 'period pieces' along with fantasy films, I find myself comparing more modernized fantasy flicks to them. I would much rather see another LotR or Harry Potter movie than this, the quality is better.

Another problem with the film industry is the fact that they seem to have already done all the stories, discovered all the plots. Creativity and originality seems to have left Hollywood in favor of sequels and remakes. This might not be an actual remake, but its a story we've seen before. Guy inadvertantly finds out that he has the supernatural gift. Is persecuted for it by people he loves and either the government, a rogue branch of the government or some independently funded group hell bent on distroying him and others like him. Bad deal because he is in love with some girl from his past (or in the rare occasion the random he met at the bar/club that's just too beautiful for words, but it's usually a girl from the past. The girl next door if you will.) and he can't bring himself to leave her behind, thus putting both himself and the girl at risk. But he's in luck, he has either randomly met or always known this guy that knows more about his condition,and the people that are after them, than anyone else. Therefore he's the only one that can help him get his love and his freedom back. But there's a catch. Turns out that someone else that he loves/knows is either in league with or a part of the secret organization sent to destroy him. But that inside ally will somehow help him stay out of trouble and alive. In the end he gets the girl and avoids 'the man' and learns how to keep his gift quiet because before he was always showing it off. Like getting the guy that was mean to him before put in jail.

That's pretty much how this movie goes. Guy learns he can teleport (which btw, if I was drowning in the river and suddenly found myself in the library my first thought would not be:'did I just teleport?' it would be: 'what the fuck?') and runs away. He learns how to control it just enough to steal money from a bank. After the bank robber part of his life (which, how dumb do you have to be to write 'IOU's to the bank after breaking into the vault?") he gets found out by another jumper and the secret organization that's been killing him. Long story short: he goes back and finds the girl he had a crush on, get the school bully put in jail by dropping his ass into a bank vault, gets caught, teams up with the other jumper to save his girlfriend, basically kills the other jumper and does what no other jumper has done before: teleported part of a building, and finds out his mom left because she is part of the secret organization. She was 'protecting' him, but really she's killing every other person out there like him and 'giving him a head start'. So eventually she plans on hunting him down and killing him? Nice mom.

The part I really liked was the bully. I didn't notice it at first, during the fist fight and the bank vault drop off, but when he was in police custody for interrogation I saw it. Duncan Kane. Or more accurately, Teddy Dunn who played Duncan Kane on my beloved Veronica Mars. He wasn't my favorite character, but it justified the movie for me. I was supporting VM alumni, good enough for me. (if it had been Jason Dohring, I probably would have gone about fifteen more times)

So I recommend it, but if you're looking for something a little more substantial I'd go with something else. If you're looking for originality though, I'd stop going to movies altogether, because at this point I don't think you're going to find it.

Here is Jumper at The Internet Movie Database.