Renzie Reviews: Jumper (2008)

I had a chance to catch Jumper on the plane, on my way to Los Angeles from Manila.

It was going to be at least 11 hours, so as soon as we hit cruising altitude, and we all settled in, I thought this would be a good time to check it out, since I missed it on its regular run when it hit theaters earlier this year.

The concept of Jumper seemed promising enough: Hayden Christiansen's character finds out that he could essentially teleport, or 'jump', from one place to another.

Seems like a neat power- instantaneously transporting yourself from place to place at a thought. Rather convenient, especially these days when gas prices are off the scale.

Rachel Bilson (yes- Summer, of "The O.C." fame) provides the obligatory romantic interest and eye-candy for the movie. And bad-ass Samuel L. Jackson's character is a paladin- like a modern-day witch-hunter, who tracks down and neutralizes jumpers (along with other paladins) whenever they pop up.

Let's keep my review of this movie spoiler-free: great premise- in fact, a potential for a really great story, but the execution has left me terribly unfulfilled. Mr. Christiansen's acting, was once again, disappointing and completely unmemorable.

You got great effects though, and the action sequences were fast-paced and entertaining, particularly when Jumpers square off against paladins, or against each other.

For me, the characters haven't been developed enough for me to really care about any of them. Do I root for Hayden's character- being the underdog in the whole story? Or do I cheer on Samuel L. Jackson and the paladins- even if the whole motivation for slaying jumpers seemed really flimsy for me?

In the end, I really didn't care much.

If you had a choice to rent the DVD, I'd say you're probably better off waiting for it to show on TV, or mooch it off for free, like borrowing it off a friend who actually bought the DVD.

Not a total waste of time, it did have some entertaining enough moments- but if you had a choice of other things to watch, you probably wouldn't want to put Jumper high up on your priority list.

Cheers, everyone.

Renzie Reviews: Serenity (2005)

I don't think this movie ever made regular screening in the Philippines. But at the time, I remember all they hype online across bulletin boards and fansites.

Serenity is a movie set in Joss Whedon's Firefly 'verse, written and directed by the man himself (excellent job, mate!). His pitch: it's a western- just so happens it's set in the future. Firefly also never saw airtime here (at least not on its regular run), and TV.com actually reported it as one of the best sci-fi TV series ever.

So naturally, when I had the chance to pick up a copy of said movie, I told myself that I just had to check this one out.

I wasn't disappointed at all- in fact, it's thoroughly entertaining: witty dialog, great story, excellent character development, good shots and camera work. It was sci-fi, alright, but not cheesy sci-fi (some DO tend to go overboard). It has, in many ways, set the benchmark on how science fiction movies should be done.

The movie was all about Mal and his ragtag crew- the movie had done an excellent job building up the characters in a relatively short time, so that you can't help but root for them, even if you haven't seen Firefly ever before.

I find out later on that the story played out in Serenity happens after all the Firefly episodes. Note to self: gotta pick up the Firefly DVDs. Watch more of the crew of the Serenity.

By the time the movie's done, you would definitely want to get to know the crew of Serenity a little more- a lot more. And chances are, you'll be checking out their entry on Wikipedia, Firefly sites and download wallpapers and images and stuff. At least, that's what I did.

Yes, Serenity made me an instant Firefly fan. Once I had the chance, I got the DVDs to watch them over and over again. On top of the Serenity DVD to end the unfortunately short-lived TV series just nicely.

Thanks, Joss, for a really good story. I'm personally looking forward to your next project.