I’ve got a good weekend rental movie for you if you have not seen this one yet. Jumper staring Hayden Christensen (Anikin Skywalker from Star Wars) is what I call a “Brain Candy” type movie. It’s nothing really worthy of high praise other then some pretty spectacular scenery, and special effects towards the end of the film, but when all is said and done, it’s a fun movie to fantasize about “What if?” What would you do if you had the ability to go anywhere on earth with just a simple thought? Well, Hayden’s character David does quite a few of those very things that would probably enter your mind first.The story starts out with David as a young teen trying to impress a girl in school by walking out onto a river that has frozen over. Of course the ice breaks, David falls in, and he is quickly being swept down stream in the frozen water. During the horror of coming close to drowning he thinks about one of his favorite places to go, (The local Library) and BOOM! The next second he is lying on the library floor soaked in frozen water. He has no idea how or why he got there, but realizes quickly that he has this ability to transport himself. There are a few funny scenes of David practicing his new found gift trying to learn how to control it. Eventually he masters his skill, and is soon “borrowing” money from banks all over the world.
The story then switches to David in his twenties I would guess, and as he is enjoying is life of travel, and luxury he finds himself going back to his home town in search of that special girl that he tried to impress that fateful day on the frozen river. He sweeps her off her feet with his wealth, and love of travel, and they are soon having the romantic time of their life, but the happiness is short lived as a clandestine group of bad guys that have a single purpose which is to kill all “Jumpers.” Yes, as David finds out eventually, he is not the only jumper. In fact there are many of them, and they have been around for thousands of years, just as the group of people that are trying to kill him have been. This group of bad guys is headed up by Roland (played by Samuel Jackson)
Roland and his jumper hunters have different fun electronic devices that help hunt down jumpers, and one particular fun device can actually catch them like flies in a spider web. Some how if a jumper is caught in some kind of electrical current, they are unable to jump, so taking advantage of this, Roland has a device that is similar to a stun gun, but resembles more of a web. Once in the web, and unable to jump, Roland disposes of the jumpers with what I guess is some sacred knife. The chase continues all over the planet, from jump spot to jump spot, and along the way David encounters another jumper, and together they try to take the bad guys down. As I said in the beginning, the later parts of the movies have some fantastic special effects which I won’t get into, but trust me it is worth a look just for those scenes.
Fair warning, this is not an Oscar winner in any way, it is simply a fun action packed adventure that stretches the imagination, and in the end is left wide open for a sequel.
My rating for this movie is 7.00 out of 10.00
