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Jumpers

Don’t worry, this isn’t a film about clothing. Doug Liman’s fast-paced, action centred style provides some stunning visual effects in this sci-fi thriller. But be warned: watching items of knitwear on screen might provide more chemistry than Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson. ‘Jumpers’ are a select group of people with the power of teleportation. When David Rice (Christensen) realises he has this power, he leaves his alcoholic father to lead a new, luxurious life of globetrotting. But his actions soon attract the attention of Roland (Samuel L Jackson), leader of the Paladins, the group that seeks to destroy them. Liman seems to have focused so much on pioneering effects – such as taking the viewer through the process of teleportation with the characters rather than objectively – that he totally forgot about character development. Thus, when the fighting and chase sequences take place, they look great, but the stakes are simply not built up high enough for you to care who prevails. And at the time when the action slows and the film relies solely on human interactions, the story line is deplorably predictable and the scenes boring. The drunken father, the childhood romance, the school bully; these are the terribly clichéd characters that the story is told through that are simply lifted from countless other indistinguishable movies. Samuel L Jackson may as well have been getting some more motherfucking snakes off another motherfucking plane; Christensen could have been carrying a light-sabre throughout – you wouldn’t have noticed. None of the performances carry any panache or originality. Jamie Bell is the saving grace, playing another Jumper. By the time of his appearance, the film is screaming out for the injection of verve he gives it.Sadly, his performance, some really excellent special effects, and wonderful filming locations (like inside the actual Colosseum) are not nearly enough to save this ‘thriller’ from joining the steadily growing stream of mediocrity expelled from Hollywood’s microwave meal industry of producing quick thrills devoid of substance.By Ben Williams

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