DVD Review:

Jumper

Movie

I remember seeing the trailers for Jumper thinking it might be a good movie.  I never did get to see it in theatres, but I am getting a chance to review it on DVD now.  Jumper is about a boy who discovers he has the power to teleport anywhere in the world, so lunch on the top of the Sphinx is not out of the question.  The movie stars Hayden Christensen, who I am sure you know from the Star wars films.  Personally I have always thought he was a terrible actor, but I had read somewhere that he was told to act that way for Star Wars.  I am sorry to say, at least in my opinion that he is just a bad actor.  I don’t find him believable in this movie either.  Hayden’s character is able to teleport which gives him the opportunity to rob banks, so this is how he finances his life.  So he pretty much has anything he wants and can do everything he wants.  Everything is going along fine until Roland shows up.  Roland is played by Samuel L Jackson who sports and interesting white hairdo.  Roland is what is called a Paladin.  Hayden’s character finds out that a war has been going on with people like him and the Paladin’s.  Paladins are basically out to kill Jumpers and feel that nobody should have the kind of power that a Jumper has.  For me the concept is pretty cool but I found the movie to be very predictable.  It was also pretty short clocking in at 90mins.  Also, I thought the ending was a little too easy.  Overall it was still fun, but one of those movies that you will forget about pretty quickly.

6 out of 10

Video

The transfer here is pretty solid.  Everything comes across nice and clean.  Colours pop and black levels are really good too.  I would guess that you’re only going to be able to get something better with the Blu-ray version.  So even though the movie was so-so for me the transfer here gets good marks.

8 out of 10

Audio

There is the option of a 5.1 DTS track here and for a soundtrack that is a little boring all the teleport noises and explosions will rattle your system.  Being that characters are teleporting all around the screen your speakers will get a pretty good workout.

9 out of 10

Extras

Even though the edition I was reviewing was a single disc release there are still some really interesting extras.  There is a commentary by the director Doug Liman, but the extra I found most interesting was Doug Liman’s Jumper: Uncensored documentary.  This was a real candid look at the challenges in making a film like this.  I also liked making an actor jump.  This is a look at how they figured out the teleportation technique.  Overall there quite a few good extras included here.  What I find funny is that a movie like this, which I don’t think is that great, creates excellent extras and then other movies, which are much better than this, make a few clunky extras.  It must be the director’s involvement that elevated the extras to a higher ground.

8 out of 10

Overall

This movie was ok, but not really worth the price it would have been to see it in the theatre.  The DVD was well done, but I don’t think I would recommend purchasing it before renting it.

7 out of 10

Recommended.