Jumper (DVD)

Jump around! Hayden Christensen discovers how to save a fortune on airfares in this hip sci-fi flick, directed by Doug Liman and also starring Jamie Bell
Open you're eyes: you're in Detroit. Open them again: you're in the Colosseum in Rome. Again: you're in Egypt on the head of the Sphinx. Once more: you're hanging off the clock face of Big Ben in London. Don't look down...

Jumper's seductive set-up is simple: imagine being able to teleport yourself anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye through your own personal wormhole. It's a daydream come true but for young David Rice (Christensen) it quickly turns into a nightmare.

True, he's able to indulge every wish, visit every place in the world he's ever wanted to see. The only rules: he has to have been there before, or have a picture enabling him to visualise it. He can rob banks, buy penthouses, sleep with girls in London and teleport himself out of their bedrooms onto a surfboard in Fiji before they've even had a chance to ask him for his phone number. But he's also just stepped into a war between Jumpers and their government-sanctioned enemies, Paladins, led by NSA agent Roland (Jackson with a snow white rinse that makes him look like he's wearing a perriwig). Tough, huh?

Jumper is based on a series of teen sci-fi novels by Stephen Gould (think a streetwise Harry Potter with wormholes instead of wands) and it shows. This is no adult movie but a mutliplex-friendly adventure full of raging hormones, CGI effects and an impertinent decision to set up a sequel long before the final reel is even in sight.

Jumper is destined to clean up at the box office if only because it's what-if? teleportation premise is such a universal wet dream and director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. And Mrs. Smith) is so adept at stringing together the requisite action sequences. While the 'jumping' itself could have come straight out of The Matrix the rest of the movie is grounded in reality as David attempts to keep his powers secret from girlfriend Millie (Bilson), stay one step ahead of Roland and his goons and work out what his long-lost mother has to do with his powers. (The answer? Wait for Jumper 2.)

There's a complex mythology at work here as David discovers when he teams up with fellow jumper Griffin, played by Jamie Bell with sideburns, a black leather jacket and a snarling overdose of testosterone crankiness.

The jumpers have existed throughout time and have been pursued for almost as long by the Paladins, a secretive order who were responsible for history's witchhunts and inquisitions. Roland believes that such power is divine ("Only God should have the power to be all places at all times," he thunders). Quite what it all adds up to isn't certain (Maybe the answer to this will be in Jumper 2 too).

Verdict
A brilliant concept let down by ropey SFX, an undercooked script and an apparent rush to get to work on the second movie. Fun and diverting but unlikely to make you jump (for joy).