Film Night: "Jumper" - Mahdi's petition

[erastes]

Jumper:  Visually very stunning (although a bit too much "wobbly camera" for me at time which I was sick of five minutes after the first director used it) and logistically it must have been a NIGHTMARE to film as it jumped from the north pole to London to New York to Cairo to Tokyo to Ann Arbor all in the space of ten seconds of screen time.

Jamie Bell acted Hayden Christensen off the stage, but even his diction failed at times and it took me about half the film before I realised that they were saying "Paladin" - And w00t!  Samuel L Jackson as a very convincing bad guy! Hayden was more of the Sith-same, really. Instead of grabbing the girl and getting the hell out of dodge, it was all "Let me explain...." when the very bad guys were just about to bash the doors down! Less yak, more escape for gawds sake!!

However, what was really wrong with it was completely unnecessary Girl (and that has nothing to do with any slash, but she was utterly pointless) without whom they could have managed more of what was really missing, e.g. any plot at all.  The whole thing seemed like a set-up to the sequel, really, which was a shame.  Has anyone read the book? Is that better?  I liked the idea of it, and I had a feeling that it was probably a lot more deep than the film gave it credit for.

On a more sombre note and found on ruth_sims' LJ - Please go and sign this petition and try and stop Mahdi from being extradited back to Iran where he will most certainly be exected for homosexuality.

(Mahdi) came to England on a student visa to study, his boyfriend in Iran was caught out and executed, and under torture gave Madhis name. Mahdi has already been refused asylum in the UK and shall certainly face horrific torture and most likely execution if the British government is allowed to send him back to Iran .  A campaign must be started to prevent this from happening, especially as the young lad had already suffered and is now going on a hunger strike.

Comments

[schmoo999.livejournal.com]

Ann Arbor? They jumped to Ann Arbor, Michigan? lmao.

and word up...if you don't like wobbly camera stay away from Cloverfield.

That is horrible about that boy:( Why give him the boot? Iran already hates any Western Country.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That's where the MC was from.

I've been there!! I'd heard that about Cloverfield...

[schmoo999.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Cloverfield was all handheld camera shots which on a big ass screen doesn't really work well. People all over the country were having to go puke in the bathrooms of the movie theaters. lol.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Have crossposted the links and articles etc. Hostile Brit judge looking for excuses with the date conflicts, that's the problem.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thanks hun.

xxx

[maximvanziel.livejournal.com]

I checked ruth_sims's post. This student must have been involved badly, because I know a lot of Iranians who managed to flee to other countries(mainly to Canada) with the help of embassy even they were involved in political/ideological issue.
Unfortunately Netherlands is too complicated recently to help him.
(I can't leave comment on her LJ, but appreciate her effort.)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Amnesty International is probably the best place to help lobby, I would think

[fiona-glass.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the book of Jumper but I've seen lots of newspaper reviews of the film and they're ALL bad! It put us off going to see it last week...

Popping over to Ruth's site now. Horrible. What with that and the poor woman who was deported straight from hospital with kidney cancer - I don't know what's happened to good old fashioned compassion. :(

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's worth watching. I think that Jummper 2 will be better!

Petition, also film review

[valkovalin.livejournal.com]

I signed the petition. Thanks for making me aware of it.

Enjoyed your film review! I thought about seeing Jumper last weekend. Probably will still see in spite of the bad reviews. The hand-held camera thing is a bad trend in movie-making.

I think it got started with the combat scenes in Saving Private Ryan, and then they went and did it in Gladiator back in 2000, and then everybody had to do it. I got a bit of a headache from it when seeing The Bourne Supremacy, but had no problems at all (oddly enough) with Cloverfield.

Re: Petition, also film review

[erastes.livejournal.com]

The camera thing isn't too much, just here and there, which made it more noticable, I guess.