Jumper

Directed by: Doug Liman
Starring: Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Diane Lane, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, Michael Rooker
Running Time: 1h 28min

Jumper deserves to be much better than what this 88 minutes of wooden acting and flish flash mumble jumbo turns out to be. An intriguing power such as teleportation begs for a much more interesting script, and considering the script comes from the hands of the adaptor of Fight Club, which got the novel so right, one would expect a well developed, character driven, multi-layered approach to how a young teen would handle discovering he has this unbelievable power to transport himself anywhere on the planet.

Add to this, the fact that Jumper comes from the guy who brought us Swingers, The Bourne Identity franchise, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, one would think this film would have a great balance of humour, action, and intense scenes. Perhaps the answer as to why this film fails so miserably is in the fact that there are two more listed screenwriters (one of which is responsible for Blade and the recent Batman revival), which is rarely a good sign.

Jumper starts off as a teen romance narrated by a snotty jerk. Which immediately makes the lead character unlikable. When it turns out that the lead character is played by Hayden Christensen, a low rate Ryan Phillippe, (who is approaching the 14th minute of his own 15 minutes of fame), it makes him all the more unlikeable. Eventually, an altercation straight out of the Tony Atlas sand kicking school of bullying, causes our hero to discover his powers. Yet unlike most superhero films, where the newly discovered powers are tested out amongst the hero's surroundings, we flash forward to a time where the lead is an even bigger jerk, and sadly, still loves his high school sweetie, who has grown up to be less interesting and less beautiful than she was, making the film even less believable, from a character standpoint.

Quickly, we learn that there are a group of hunters who seek out the jumpers and kill them in the name of God (an age old reason if there ever was one). Their leader is none other than Samuel L. Jackson, who could have used a little more Jules to his sinister Jumper hunter, and perhaps some hair dye for that ridiculous white hairdo of his. He looks like Chris Tucker's character from The Fifth Element after he reaches his fifties. Perhaps a little kookier swagger would have made his role more interesting. He tries to be a little Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive, to no avail.

What makes Jumper so disappointing is that there's a real interesting premise here that just gets no time to develop in its 88 minutes. It's like the film itself "jumped" through it's good parts. The effects used to portray the teleportation work well; not too flashy but not too simple. Still, we have seen it done well in The Matrix sequel and with Nightcrawler in X-Men. What is nicely established are "rules" for "jumping", which shows the thought that goes into this sci-fi kind of concept.

With word that there is a Jumper 2 in the works, it bodes well for a film franchise that has set the groundwork for future. Unfortunately, that foundation is as shaky as Japanese fault lines. There is so much promise that is not fulfilled in this first film. Hopefully in the sequel, the lead characters get killed and we're introduced to a greater battle between Jumpers and Jumper hunters, that uses a little more mystery and stealth and a lot less hokey love line plot threads. This film should be able to be summarized in a good three minutes at the start of Jumper 2, so avoid it now at all costs.

Grade: C-