Hi all,

Well just had a bad experience with Mr. Stephen Gould this week. I was oblivious to his tome, and a freind reccomended the movie Jumper, based off the authors book. I had heard of it but not watched.

I watched it, going in having anakin from the star wars prequels didnt give me a warm fuzzy, but I finished watching. It is fair, weak in some areas, but watchable. My point for this thread is the back story. They give the back story as a war between Jumpers/teleportes and a nefarious organization called the paladins. This war apparently has been going on for centuries, yet the movie fails on a couple counts. They go out of their way not to explore even a smidgen, how or why the jumpers can do what they do, only that the paladins want to kill them. The only reason given is that the paladins feel they are an abomination and have to be destroyed, the teleport ability is unnatural !Yawn! one dimensional zealot.

Ok, fair sci-fi film with potentially decent back story, I went to book store and got the book, funny how the cover had shots from the movie. The book was originally written in 1992. I hoped going in the book would give some detail and pick up this potentially cool storyline.......NAY, I SAY, NAY!!

The  book barely resembles the movie, and is worse than as well!! how often does that happen! The only thing sci-fi about the book jumper is the word teleport. The main character is an abused runaway teenager who just happens into this ability, more of a simple prop, toy/escape mechanism.
The main character and the supporting cast are hollow and simple. The situations in the book are oversimplified, as are the solutions, a bore.

It was linear and predictable, and saddly less than the movie. Apparently the author has written two more in the series and there is some kind of comic/graphic novel prequel. The reviews are mixed, but look to be equal or less than the original. 

Has anyone read this/seen movie? interested in your commments.

Trang.