Might as well jump

There is a great movie to be made about personal teleportation.
The idea of instantly moving from one physical space to another has entranced science fiction fans ever since Captain Kirk, First Officer Spock and the guy with the red t-shirt who was going to die stepped into a transporter.

One of the finest science fiction novels ever written, The Stars my Destination, by Alfred Bester deals with personal teleportation, which Bester describes as "jaunting" in the 1956 novel. This book is so good that I've bought it three times, first as half a graphic novel adaptation by Howard Chaykin (the second half was notoriously hard to find) then twice as novels after lending and losing the book the first time out.

You will normally find Bester's book published as Tiger, Tiger and even though it's basically a rewrite of The Count of Monte Cristo, it holds up fifty-two years later as one of the best bits of sci-fi conceptualising ever written.
There's a great film to be made from Bester's work, hell, there's a great film to be made from stealing two ideas from Bester's novel, but Jumper isn't it.
Not that Jumper cribs from The Stars my Destination. No, it's source material is much humbler, a sci-fi story for "young adults" written by Steven Gould, so I suspect that the book is long on post-teen angst and painfully short on high concept.
But there's no way that the book can possibly be as bad as the film it inspired.

I'm frankly confused by this.
Doug Liman, whose staccato direction of the last first instalment of the Bourne Identity trilogy and fluent handling of almost continuous violence in Mr and Mrs Smith is the director here and David S. Goyer, who wrote the last two Blade movies and kind of directed the last one is on hand to contribute to the script of Jumper.
The thing is Jumper isn't a bad film, it's a great setup with a black hole at its centre and it reminds me of nothing less than On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which boasted experienced direction by Peter Hunt, excellent writing by Bond vet Richard Maibaum and George Lazenby.

OHMSS was enthusiastic, well produced and full of action but Lazenby was a giant sucking presence in the middle of the film, draining every scene he appeared in of enthusiasm, excitement and, well, Bondishness.
There's an amazing scene in the film as Bond talks with Gabriele Ferzetti, playing Draco and you can see this accomplished actor lowering his game to try to slow down enough for Lazenby's laconic pace as the scene goes on.
Bu the end of OHMSS, you can't help but feel that if the part of Bond had been played by a man-shaped hole burned in the celluloid, it couldn't possibly have been any worse.

Hayden Christensen is kind of like that in Jumper. He starts the film off with a sulking pout, clearly dissatisfied with his ability to go anywhere he likes, take anything he wants and take beautiful women to bed all over the world. Once the Paladin knight Roland (Samuel L Jackson) gets on his case, he has even less to be happy about, but he's got nowhere to go emotionally from where he starts out except through the special effect that's lifted directly from Nightcrawler's moves in X2.

There are other people in the film, including an almost invisible Thomas Hulce and a cleverly almost absent Diane lane, but the only presence in the film beyond Jackson's remarkable silver haircut is Jamie Bell, who seems to be the only person who is having fun. At least Jackson gets to beat Christensen up... repeatedly. It might be vengeance for their last appearance together, but it's hard to begrudge Jackson his dark side when faced with such monotone acting.

It's troubling to see Christensen in a leading role being even less of an actor than he managed to be in the last two Star Wars prequels, but it's even more troubling to realise that the film was made with one eye on a sequel.
That's not science fiction, that's horror.

Tags: Movies