Blu-ray Disc Review |
Release Date: June 10, 2008. Film Rating:   / Starring: Hayden Christensen (David Rice), Samuel L. Jackson (Roland), Jamie Bell (Griffin), Rachel Bilson (Millie Harris) Written by: David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls, & Simon Kinberg Directed by: Doug Liman Anywhere. Anything. Instantly. From the director of The Bourne Identity and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Doug Liman brings a thrilling new adventure to the screen. The concept of the film is roughly based on Steven Gould’s novel, Jumper, and has been adapted for film in a way that would be interesting for a movie-going audience. The film stars Hayden Christensen as David Rice who, at only 15 years old, discovers that he is able to teleport himself from one place to another. The first of such places is the library of Ann Arbour, MI, the town where he lives. Since the library is his place for escape, during a moment of distress he unwillingly teleports himself to that location. From this point on, David learns how to control his teleportation abilities allowing him to get into places no other human could ever possibly do, as well as to teleport to any place in the world at any time. These become his “jump sites” and all he needs to do is envision a place and he’ll jump to the site. But life isn’t so easy; did David really think that he’d never get caught or stay unnoticed? After David meets another jumper, Griffin, he learns there are many more of them in the world. It’s also brought to his attention that he’s being hunted down by a secret organization called the Paladin, whose purpose is to kill jumpers. He’s forced to create an alliance with Griffin to fight off the Paladin and protect themselves as well as those who they’ve brought into their lives. I thought this was an entertaining 88 minutes and time well spent. I’m not so sure why the reviews were so mediocre so I’m going to come out swinging telling you to take a good look at the film. The pace of the film was good and the storyline was entertaining, I just didn’t buy the paladin story as I thought it was too unrealistic. I can see if the paladin was a recent organization, it would make the story more believable, but to have had them chasing “jumpers” for thousands of years as a secret society seemed too far-fetched for me to keep it a sci-fi in a realistic modern world. Christensen’s acting is no better than what we saw in the Star Wars prequels although I respected him more in this role. He actually seems to fit the shy-boy character that hasn’t developed full confidence despite his teleporting abilities. Samuel L. Jackson, well…he’s another problem altogether. I’m not a fan of his acting style and my feelings are no different here. No matter what film he plays in, he acts just the same with no differentiation. Plus the white hair didn’t work. Sorry Sam.  VIDEO QUALITY: 5/5 Time of day = perfect. Interiors = perfect. Exteriors = perfect. Transfer = perfect. After trying to find some adjectives to describe the image of this release, the only word that comes to mind is perfect. The AVC MPEG-4 compression appears flawless to my eyes, but I’ll admit I was caught up in the film and tended to forget about it. There was nothing objectionable that stood out. All of the colours seems wonderfully reproduced no matter what side of the world the film crew took us (most of it is real, by the way. First unit crew did shoot at all of these locations!) Details never seem to be lacking. I found resolution to be exceptional. Effects shots are integrated perfectly. No edge enhancement is applied. The aspect ratio is 2.35:1. AUDIO QUALITY: 4.5/5 This is an exciting and active 5.1 mix that surrounds the listener in a believable sound space. The audio is smooth, full, and even throughout the 20-20 range; at least that is how I hear it. Never once did I find it too loud, shrill, aggressive, or in your face. Dialogue is always intelligible as well as being inserted nicely in the mix. It’s never drowned out in other sounds, yet, it never seems dominant either. The front soundstage has an active mix of music and sound effects that are well recorded and deliver delivering clarity and good resolution. Sound effects are creative; the ‘suck & thump’ of bass during teleportation is interesting and makes you want to hear it over and over. The soundstage is wide and extends to the surrounds. The surround channels support the front soundstage nicely and the mix doesn’t draw attention to itself for a pleasing experience. I did feel that the overall dynamics were a bit too linear for my tastes. I would have been nice to have a bit more loudness when needed, of course, without sacrificing fidelity. The audio encode is DTS-HDMA. TACTILE FUN!! / TACTILE TRANSDUCER ON/ON?: ON Adds fun to the teleportation! Shakes the seat! Of course, the action scenes are good too for a bit of heavy hitting punches and the like. D-Box Motion code is included on this title. I think it would make the movie much more exciting! SPECIAL FEATURES: 3/5 All special features are HD so I’ll refrain from making that comment about each feature. I’m also going to say that the entire behind the scenes footage, interviews, etc were actually good, and that’s coming from a guy who hates special features. So in the end, it was worth my while to check these out.
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