Jumper (The Movie)

While I typically feel moved to review items that I enjoyed, this movie was so bad that it made me wish I could teleport my television into the middle of the deepest, most shark infested waters on the planet.

First off, if you're a science fiction fan, you'll recognize the name of the author of the book, Steven Gould, and you'll even recognize the name of the movie. However, don't for one second think that this movie is based on the original Jumper novel.

At some point in his writing career, Gould experienced a religious conversion to narcissism and extremist Liberalism. His later novels betray his extreme Leftist ideological allegiance with a strong trend toward Earth Worship. Okay, so I'm exaggerating just a bit, albeit only a bit.

As a result of Gould's conversion to far left Liberalism, he has rewritten the Jumper story to remove the original Islamic villains, and he has replaced them with secret quasi-official, apparently Christian, agents and assassins who believe that Jumpers are an affront to God and all that is Holy. He has replaced the original, thoughtful and moral David Rice with a newer, narcissistic David Rice. And the new David is a complete idiot. I was actually hoping the "bad guys" would catch him and kill him. If not for the hot girlfriend being in danger, I probably would've cheered for the bad guys. Sad.

For those of you who don't know the original Jumper story, David Rice grows up in an abusive home. His mother flees their home one night when he is a child, so he has abandonment issues on top of just having a mean ass drunk for a father. He is an escapist, who reads a lot in order to escape from his real life. Hence, the Library is his first sanctuary, and the first place where he finds himself able to Jump. He is smart, caring, and although he does rob a bank, he never stops feeling guilty about it.

He naturally initiates a search for his mother.

He buys a real I.D. for someone with a similar name as himself and opens a bank account. He reads up about banking laws and avoids drawing attention to himself by being smart about how he spends the money from the bank robbery. He only robs one bank and that's it. After that he pays for everything, albeit using stolen money, but he knows that at least the bank had insurance, so in the long run the depositors were not hurt. Doesn't stop him from feeling guilty though.

He tries to keep a low profile. Rents an apartment using his purchased identity, hides his money in a closet that he walled up.

He saves a neighbor from an abusive husband who turns out to be a cop. The cop takes an extreme interest in David's life and starts digging. The cop thinks it is drugs. Around the same time David finds his mother and she flies out to New York to see him before traveling to Jerusalem. They meet, he's happy for once in his life.... Really happy. Life is good.

He turns on the news. Hijacking. His mother is the victim. He swears vengeance. At this time he does have a love interest. A girl he met after becoming a Jumper. Older, more mature. Remember, he's mature for his age.

He builds a lair out in the desert. High up in a cliff, a hidden cave. Inaccessible to all but himself. He builds it himself, with his own hands, learning as he goes.

He employs a clipping service to inform him of hijackings involving Islamics. He's looking specifically for the one who killed his mother. In the process he saves a hijacked boat, a plane or two. His travels to acquire jump points in other countries brings him to the attention of U.S. intelligence agencies, and the NSA. Overzealous NSA agents attempt to capture him, so now he's dodging the New York cops, the NSA, and fighting terrorists.

Great... Who else is he going to piss off? The overzealous agents go too far and he starts jumping U.S. agents all over the globe. He pretends to be an alien from outer space, using a cheesy line from popular science fiction to explain his ability. The NSA doesn't fall for it.

By the end of the book, he gets the bad guy (terrorist dude) and puts the fear of God in him. Dropping someone repeatedly from the Empire State building is a good way to scare someone I guess. He reaches an accord with the NSA that doesn't involve them making him disappear.

The character development of David Rice in the original novel was understandable. It was how any reasonable person with a moral compass would've progressed, engaging in a little fun, suffering from a little guilt, and exploring the limits of their powers in the least damaging way. The character in the movie was arrogant, drunk on his own power, cruel, and careless. Earmarks of stupidity bordering on criminal. In no way was the character in the movie a hero. He was a crook, a thief, and an asshole who endangered everyone around him. His transformation into the self-assured, loving boyfriend character at the end doesn't logically progress from his experiences in the movie.

But what gets me is that all the changes from the original story don't enhance the story at all. They make the story less fun, and less fantastic. In a sane world, the protagonist would've been the antagonist. Stealing from banks, stores, and despite having all the money from his heists, he persists in leaving I.O.U.'s that he apparently never paid back, forcing hard working business owners to lose money makes David Rice in the movie a bad guy.

My recommendation is ignore this movie. Buy a copy of the original novel and enjoy it. Also check out Steve Gould's book, "Helm". Great book, good story. Published before he found Green Religion.