Word and Deed!

Now, let me get this out of the way:  I'm going to try and avoid spoilers, and I'm going to try to be fair in my review.

The first, fairly easy -- if you define spoilers the same way I do (giving away key mystery-points, not so much key plot-points), so keep that in mind if you're an anti-spoiler fiend.

The second . . . to be any sort of fair, I have to review this movie twice; once as a movie, once as an adaptation of a book I purely love.

So . . . Jumper: Sci-fi Action Movie!

I'd have to say . . . go see it!  I'd give it an A-, as a purely fun movie.  Lots of cool special effects, some very inventive action sequences, and at least one seriously nifty little fight scene.  The way Griffin and David employ some "jump effects" as weapons is explained adequately by the things that happen in the movie before they are used so, which works much better than having a character explain them.

Hayden Christiansen actually picked up a few acting chops somewhere between here and his portrayal of Mannequin Skywalker -- while he's not about to get any award nominations for acting, he's at least learned to emote.  He did fine as an action movie hero not really cut out for the job.  Jamie Bell came across as the right level of paranoid-wacko, and still sort of . . . endearing.  Rachel Bilson . . . well, she's pretty, and she said her lines, and emoted.  It's not her fault that her character was mostly window dressing, with a dash of plot device -- somebody has to need rescuing, right?

The peculiar mythology of the movie didn't work for me so well on a story level (Mr. Gould's explanation of the Paladins in his Jumper: Griffin's Story worked better, I thought), but the villains being religious fanatics who think that only God should have the kind of power that the Jumpers have made for nice, easy-to-loathe-in-a-visceral-fashion villains.

(And how can you go wrong with having Sam Jackson as a villain, I ask you?  The man's damned good, he can make you love him or hate him as the role requires -- and with just his facial expressions and body language.)

My only two complaints about this as a sci-fi action movie were as follows:  1) It was too short.  I wanted more!  And 2) Someone needs to smack Doug Liman about the head and shoulders and tell him to stop using the jerky, hand-held cameras!  He only did it twice this time that I spotted, and both were fairly short -- but it doesn't, as Liman seems to think, make the viewer feel like they're right there, part of the action.  It just makes for dizziness and hard-to-follow action.

So . . . for a purely good-time action-adventure-sci-fi movie, I say this:  Get out there and see Jumper.  Lots of fun, and like I said -- some of the action scenes involving teleporting were inventive, even innovative.  And all of the effects were high-quality.  (Personally, I dug the hell out of David standing on the face of Big Ben in the rain -- it looked very cool, and you know that wasn't real.)

Oh, and the orchestral soundtrack?  Yeah, it kicked BUTT!  (I wonder if Mr. Gould gets anything from that?  If so, I tossed a couple-three cents his way, grabbed some of the soundtrack from iTunes.)

Now . . . for the flip side of the coin.

Jumper: Adaptation of the Novel.

Dear gods above, the sheer butchery that took place in this so-called adaptation is just plain horrifying!  There are not enough minuses to give it a strong enough F-, I swear!

That was NOT the David Rice I know and love.  

Book Davy:  Essentially a good kid.  Honest, until desperation drives him not to be.  Intelligent.  Sensitive.  Intellectual.  Non-confrontational.  Quiet.  Shy, even.  And couldn't make himself have sex with a willing partner, partly because of her drunkenness, and his father being an alcoholic -- but, I've always thought, partly because he didn't really know her.

Movie Davy:  Okay, honest . . . sort of?  I mean, he leaves IOUs for stuff, but there's never any real indication that he's actually made good on any of them.  (And the gold bars in his money closet leave me doubting his honesty!)  Intelligent . . . yes, probably.  But not a lot of sign of it.  Sensitive . . . no.  No evidence of same.  Intellectual . . . nope.  Sorry, but, while I love comics myself (or used to), using Marvel Team-Up as an argument to make someone help you . . . not intellectual.  And casual sex with one woman that we saw?  NOT Davy!

Book Millie: Student studying to be psychologist/counselor.  Strong, independent, intellectual, sensitive, caring, still human enough to say stupid things she didn't really mean.  Likeable, even loveable.

Movie Millie:  Bartender.  Not all that bright, plainly not ambitious or independent.  And easy.  Goes to Rome with and sleeps sleeps with David (or so it is implied) less than twenty-four hours after meeting him again after an eight year absence.

And the whole necessity of them being childhood semi-sweethearts as opposed to meeting in the course of the story . . . would be pointless and silly, if they'd bothered to leave the freaking STORY alone.

And that brings us to the story.

Book:  A deeply personal story of one abused, abandoned kid trying to straighten out his life -- as complicated (AND made simpler) by this weird, out-of-nowhere and seemingly unique ability to teleport.  Also a revenge story, with villains who are believable and intriguing because they are very, very real.

Movie:  Sci-fi/Adventure story with very little depth, a whole BUNCH of Jumpers, and a secret society with incredible technology and the ability to impersonate agents of most any government agency bent on destroying the Jumpers because they are abominations in the eyes of god.

So . . . as an adaptation of Steven Gould's novel, the movie Jumper just plain reeks!

My advice?  See the movie, but forget that it's connected to the book.  You'll enjoy it that way -- I did.  

And if you haven't read the book, then go buy a copy -- you'll love it!

Go on, what are you waiting for? Go!  Buy it!

Well, this has been a productive day, despite some . . . ah, pleasant interruptions.

Almost 5,500 words added, today -- and I've definitely hit that point where the novel starts accelerating towards the wild ride it wil be before the BIG CLIMAX!

NaNo-confirmed word count for Day 17:  67,193

I can live with that!