The main problem with this film is there are so many ends not tied up. I’ll say that first and foremost. I will not say what they are as just about all of them are relevant to the plot, and are apart of the end.
Hayden Christensen was miscast in this, but I think he has improved from Star Wars, however, he’s still a wooden actor. He cannot handle emotional scenes well. I will go on to say, and anyone may quote me on this as I truly believe in it: Hayden and Rachel (Millie) had more chemistry than Hayden and Natalie Portman in Star Wars. Hayden is still miscast in this however he has improved somewhat in his acting.
Rachel Bilson is a breath of fresh air to the film scene, I am a huge fan of The O.C. and Rachel made her character believable and I really enjoyed watching her, and I think she actually tried to make her character have some chemistry with Hayden’s character, i.e. she put more effort into her acting than Hayden did. I absolutely loved watching her and she’s definitely one to keep an eye on, I think she’s very talented. And she handles comedy well.
However, that’s another weakness of this film: all the jokes are either badly written, or poorly executed. As I said, Rachel is great with comedy (see The OC) however she said some jokes that were flat, same with Jamie Bell and his character Griffin, and I’m not saying the actors said them poorly, I believe they are just bad jokes.
Jamie Bell is another breath of fresh air. He’s not plastered all over film posters and city billboards like your Lindsay Lohans or whatever and he is a genuinely fine actor. Ever since King Kong he’s really building himself up as a dramatic actor. Loved his character as well.
Samuel L Jackson was bad-arse in this, complete bad-arse. However, you could tell he was wearing a wig throughout the film as right at the bottom of his hair on his neck, you could see his real hair. But that’s okay, he still looked bad-arse. I also viewed this film similar to that of the witch trials hundreds of years ago. Jumpers are “witches” and the Paladin and Jackson’s character are “the church”. Roland also says just as he is about to kill a jumper that “God should be the only one to be in all places at all times”. Even Griffin (Bell) says that they have been hunting jumpers since “medieval times, the witch trials, all that, that WAS THEM!” So I thought that was a strong point, and I mean no offence to anyone devoutly religious by saying this, that is just something I took from the film.
Diane Lane and Annasophia Robb were surprises in the cast. Especially Lane, she’s fantastic as usual. Robb was great as usual also but I felt she looked too young to be in high school, but then again, they do not say what grade she and David are in, so it’s all good.
The snow globe should have had a more prominent role in the film, and that’s all I’ll say about that (I see this sentence as a spoiler, hence the spoiler warning).
The special effects are great in this, especially the “jump scars”. However, the blue/green screen effects are very poor for a big-budget commercial film like this, they stick out like a sore thumb.
This has potential for a sequel, and I would genuinely like to see a sequel, as long as the same team is back and they improve upon themselves and see where they went wrong, and Jumper 2 (or would it be “Jumpers”?) could be a fantastic film.
It is popcorn sci-fi fluff but go into this film to have a good time, nitpick it later. I enjoyed it immensely despite its many flaws. Seven out of ten
Loading ...
