Jumper Blu-ray Review

Jumper is presented in a 2.35:1 ratio and is encoded using the 1080P AVC MPEG-4 high definition codec. Whilst the movie is a bit hit and miss, thankfully all of the video aspects of it hold up admirably well. Most of the scenes are well lit and not overly bright and it allows for some excellent texture from within the images to come through. In all the shots the detail is very apparent and there are very few imperfections in this print to speak of. Being a fairly new release you wouldn't expect there to be any and the transfer is done impeccably well.

There is very little evidence if any of artificial edge enhancement, yet the images remain comfortably razor sharp and very precise. Central characters at times, standout upon what appears to be a moving canvas of a backdrop. The colours are rich, bold and vibrant and the whole colour palette vividly fills the four corners of the screen without becoming over saturated. The car scene set in Tokyo is simply a visual feast for the eyes. Your retina will be working overtime absorbing all those neon lights and flashes of wonderful colour set in the crowded night scenes.

The colour scale is accurately represented and whites are almost true. If there is a tendency skin tones lean towards a rosy hue in some scenes but for the most part they are rendered as natural. Viewed on a plasma panel the blacks appear to be solid enough with the contrast providing some serious depth to the picture. The scenes in the coliseum for example exhibit enough depth to almost want to reach out and touch. There is some greyness to images however that seems to come and go in scenes. It's not too serious and thankfully doesn't interfere with shadow detail too much. All in all this is a pretty impressive transfer and helps to elevate the disc package quite considerably so.

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA (48Khz-24-bit) is only available in English so if you're Italian or French speaking then you'll be limited to the 5.1 DTS soundtrack as your only option. On first listening I felt the need to crank the volume up a few levels to where I usually park it. I think you'll have to do the same as otherwise the audio delivery may come across as rather subdued. No matter, the resolution in the audio holds true up to some seriously loud levels without peaking or clipping though a decent amp.

The opening introductory scene funnels all the dialogue through the centre channel and it sets the stall for the rest of the movie. I found this quite a bit disconcerting at first and felt that my cabling to the other channels must have worked loose? The dialogue is firmly routed through the centre front and as I say remains so throughout the movie. However, as soon as the movie starts to move along the mix becomes altogether more adventurous. The teleport scenes are filled with a wonderful phzzzz and thud sound and whilst the LFE is never overworked to room shaking levels, there is more than enough there to make you feel you are involved in a rollicking sci-fi action movie. The war torn scenes in Chechnya are particularly impressive.

Sound steering is wonderfully accurate and the effects pan effortlessly from left to right, and front to back. I really did feel enveloped by the sounds and during some of the more hectic scenes I also felt that everything was incredibly controlled all around me. It feels very true to life and very real time. The dynamic range was terrific and the tonals are just about right. If you shut your eyes you would almost be there. It's not perfect but it's a great soundtrack and a great downmix.

There is a comprehensive list of extras and thankfully pretty much none of it is shallow, disc filler type of stuff. Furthermore, the majority of it is presented in HD, which is good.

Commentary by Doug Liman, Simon Kinberg and Lucas Foster - (88mins) Director, is joined by writer producer and producer to provide the audio commentary. Right from the start when you hear Lucas Foster's rendition of the 20th Century Fox fanfare you get the sense that the three of them really were up for doing this commentary. All in all it's a fairly candid affair and it's quite telling that there is mention of the limited budget, timetable and the difficulty of converting the essence of the book into an onscreen adaptation. It goes someway in explaining why the film is as choppy as it was. The commentary is not a must listen but it's certainly a worthwhile listen.

Jumpstart: David's Story - (8mins 7secs) An animated graphic novel presented in a comic book sketch. This is a fairly dark sketch and alludes to the massive potential that Jumper had. If only the movie had used the style of storyline that's prevalent in the sketch then the whole movie would have been on a different level altogether.

Jumping around the world PiP (non PiP version) A small pop up box appears in the left corner of the screen with production and location details. You'll also get a technical voiceover relative to the scene. It's a pretty impressive extra and a sure sign of things to come from the studios. There's not enough of it but it's a pointer in the right direction. If your player is not profile 1.1 compliant, not to worry, there is a manual menu to be able to access the 11 locations.

Doug Liman's Jumper: Uncensored - (35mins 34secs) This is the pick of the extras by far. It's a behind the scenes look at the making of the movie and includes cast interviews and comments. It's all presented in HD and Liman is quite stark and to the point. It's a very honest outlook by him and makes this documentary a must see. It also reveals what the man is all about and how he disseminates a project and rebuilds it to depict it exactly the way that he wants.

Making an actor jump - (7mins 36secs) Another must see extra. Doug Liman was clearly obsessed in making the idea of Jumping or teleporting come to life as realistically and as convincingly as possible. The techie boys have their say in how they went about this but ultimately it's Liman's vision that orchestrates what the end result was going to end up looking like.

Jumping from novel to film : The past, present and future of Jumper - (8mins 8secs) Steven Gould talks about his original novel and how Doug Liman purged the story in a way far removed from the manner that he had constructed it in. Liman takes the novel and rips it down to the core and builds the movie up solely around the idea of teleportation. Liman also acknowledges that the project was set out as a three-part sequel, so if all goes well and they get the green light from the studios, then he's got another two films to get it entirely right

Deleted scenes - (I1mins 17secs) A total of six deleted scenes from the movie. Inadvertent jumps, Alternate Roland intro, Tokyo and the machine, David hides from Roland, Taxi to Airport-Rome, Epilogue War. Not sure why any of these were actually excluded as they all seem to have a worthy slot within the film? They would have gone some way to help fill out the plot holes so painfully evident in the movie itself.

Previz: Future concepts - (4mins 34secs) This is a computer generated animated sequence set to a musical score. It depicts a few scenes of the Paladins trying to kill David Rice and Griffin as well as a fight that David has with Griffin. The fight between the two is not exactly as per the one shown in the film but there is some similarity.

Websites - Fox puts up the details of three of it's global websites for viewers to log onto www.fox.co.uk, www.foxmovies.com.au and www.foxinternational.com

D-box motion code - If you have a D-box integration motion sytem with a Blu-ray drive, pop this disc in and a digital code will be downloaded to your D-box enabling you to do further digital trickery with the film. I'm afraid I don't have one so am not sure what all the fun and games are about.

Doug Liman directs Jumper as best as he can and the film is very much edited in his hallmark style. It's pieced together to develop a real sense of pace and much of the traits that he used in the Bourne Identity are evident in an underlying form here. If it's not broke then don't bother fixing it, though I must warn you, please don't go equating this film to the Bourne Identity in any other way as it's simply not in that league.

The conversion from novel to script was a troubled affair and there were no less than three script writers involved in trying to tie it all up and frankly it shows. The onscreen adaptation is not as seamless as it should have been and is diluted by the inclusion of a variety of weak sub plots. It's a frustratingly stop start affair that struggles to hang together but it's saved somewhat if anything by the pacing of the film. Teleportation, special effects and a fairly robust novel to base everything off of; the sum of the parts really should have been far greater than the whole that has been offered on this first occasion. I say the first occasion as there is little doubt that a sequel has been planned for and the cues in the movie are blatantly obvious as to a Jumper 2 already being on the cards.

Whilst the film itself is quite disappointing and can only be considered as passable fare, the blu-ray disc package itself is however given a remarkable lease of life in other ways. The video aspects of the disc are of a high order with some wonderful attention to detail, depth and renditioning of colours with some beautifully textured imagery. The audio in the form of a lossless DTS-HD master audio mix is certainly a classy affair and along with the host of quality extras it puts this blu-ray disc onto a pedestal far more deserving than the inherent film itself.

Ultimately in conclusion, giving a recommendation leaves me in a little bit of a quandary. The film may disappoint some but the disc, through the sum of the parts, does in many ways represent a worthy purchase. Roll on the sequel I say.