IDSPISPOPD

Google the title and you might figure out why I chose it. It's kinda less obvious than bamf.

Anyway, I just got done watching Jumper, and the first thing that hit me was "Shit. It's Vader vs Mace. Holy crap!" And really, it doesn't disappoint in that aspect. Lets see what I think.

Firstly, I'll admit that after watching the trailers for the film, I was caught in two minds. Firstly, I loved Nightcrawler in X-Men 2, and am generally tolerant of Sci-Fi action flicks of most sorts. However, after the debacle that was AVP:R (which I'm not even going to bother reviewing), my faith in the genre has sunk to new depths. I'm a huge fan of things like Terminator, Alien, Predator, Robocop, Minority Report, Jurassic Park and I, Robot, but then there are such painful memories as, well, AVP and it's bastard child of a sequel.

The movie opens up with young David (who I'm tempted to call Anakin) narrating to us, the fortunate audience, how he discovered his "ability". Of course, not the most original introduction to a story about people with super powers, but it works. And at the same time, you're introduced to his lady friend, Summer from the OC. Incidentally, I was dead sure her name was Rachel Wilson, and I immediately thought of Rainn Wilson, or Dwight from The Office.

It's Rachel Bilson.

But back to Jumper. As most American movies do, it centres around a love story that is intricately tied to the larger-than-life plot. Like Peter Parker agonising over telling Mary Jane, or Bruce Wayne hiding behind a mask and revealing himself by kissing some blonde, or Clark Kent shuffling his glasses uneasily around Lois Lane, David tries to hide his "talent" from Millie (Summer/Rachel), something most of us would have expected.

What I didn't expect, however, was the way most of the "jump" sequences were actually quite enjoyable. The fight scenes in particular, while paling in comparison to the latter half of Nightcrawler's assault on the White House, were original enough, I thought. Fans of DotA would be thinking "BLINKSTRIKE" here and there, and I haven't even begun talking about teleporting cars.

A big part of the movie revolves around the on-going war, which has "been going on for years", between the Jumpers and the Paladins. This is where the "Vader vs Mace" thing comes in, as Samuel L. Jackson resumes his role as the hard line, no nonsense black cop-person. Sort of like Shaft. There's also the issue of "how the hell do you realistically fight against people who can teleport, at will?", and that's dealt with too, at least to my satisfaction.

Then, the movie kinda ends on a lame note.

Because Vader is in it, there's the obligatory "parent" save. I guess it's a legacy that dates back to Luke being burnt by lightning (and also repeated in Awake), a move which kind of fell into line with the "I am your mother" "twist" in The Golden Compass. I didn't like it.

Still, I disagree with the generally poor reviews that Jumper has gotten. It's by no means an awesome movie, but it's still watchable, at the very least. It deserves more than a 3.5 out of 5, but I rarely give out 4's, but maybe this comes close.