Seen on: February 16, 2008

The players: Director: Doug Liman, Writers: David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls, Simon Kinberg, Cast: Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell, Diane Lane, Rachel Bilson

Facts of interest: Based on a book by Steven Gould.

The plot: A young man (Hayden Christensen) finds out he can teleport himself anywhere he wants, and starts living the high life by robbing banks. But then he is tracked down by paladins, ruthless agents whose purpose it is to kill jumpers once and for all.

Our quick thoughts: In “Jumper,” a young man (Hayden Christensen) discovers he can teleport himself anywhere he wants. But when he starts abusing his power to rob banks and enjoy high living, he quickly finds himself hunted by a ruthless paladin (Samuel L. Jackson), an agent who kills ‘jumpers’ for a living. Sound exciting? It sure does. The trailers for the film looked amazingly beautiful, and the inventive premise had thousands of fans excited about the release. And who could be a better director for this than Doug Liman?

So, what could possibly go wrong? Well, a whole lot actually. Just because the main characters jump anywhere they desire does not mean cinemagoers are necessarily willing to jump past all the weaknesses in the script. When word about the film first got out, everybody thought Liman was just the right guy for this concept (he also directed “The Bourne Identity” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith). As it turns out, unfortunately, he seems to be caring more about fancy special effects than sophisticated screenwriting.

Massive plot holes are the movie’s worst nightmare. While the audience learns a lot about how the main protagonist discovers his power, other crucial aspects are never explained. We never learn who Jackson’s character really is and how he got to tracking down jumpers. We know he’s a so-called paladin, but we never find out how and why their war against jumpers really started. In one waty or the other, everything in “Jumper” feels rushed and incomplete.

This approach has only one benefit, and is eventually the film’s greatest asset: it boosts the pace of the plot, delivers constant action, and completely avoids boredom. The more negative effect is that everything happens so fast that by the time the movie is over, we are left wondering: is this it? Where’s the big showdown? That final jump was not at all spectacular.

The actors try their best to inject at least some energy into their generic characters, but the script more often than not prevents them from doing so. Chemistry between Christensen and Rachel Bilson is non-existent, and the romance between the two is painfully implausible. Jackson looks ridiculous with his white hair and tough attitude, and his performance resembles that in “XXX: State of the Union.” Nobody cares about his character anyway. The only acting honors in the film go to Jamie Bell.  

Freaky quote: "You think you can go on like this forever? Living like this with no consequences? There are always consequences." - Samuel L. Jackson

The final word: Expectations for “Jumper” were high, but the end result failed to live up to them. The concept is interesting but never developed enough, and if handled with a little more care, the jump would have been twice as impressive. “Jumper” is a decent action flick as far as the pacing is concerned, but that’s hardly enough to please us these days.