The allure and fun of movies of old -- most notably the early James Bond flicks -- were that they took viewers places they had never been before, courtesy of the plot having one or more characters jet-setting around the world. Of course, they showed little if any of the actual traveling (save for the boarding, lift-off or launch and/or subsequent landing of some mode of transport) since the destination and not the trip getting there was the important thing.
In the sci-fi flick "Jumper" -- based on Steven Gould's novel -- that's taken even one step farther. You see, a certain number of individuals possess some sort of genetic mutation that allows them to teleport themselves -- obviously instantaneously -- anywhere in the world. Beyond eliminating the need for dreaded travel terms such as "jet lag," "red eye" and "security checkpoint," such ultra-speedy travel would also seem to allow filmmakers even more time to tell their story.
Unfortunately, director Doug Liman (so good with the first "Bourne Identity" film as well as the more recent "Mr. & Mrs. Smith") and scribes David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls and Simon Kinberg seem to have done some jumping themselves. That is, as in jumping over essential plot elements necessary to make a film work, as well as conclusions about what viewers will accept in terms of such genre offerings.
The first pertains to some simple explanations of the hows, whens and whys of such an ability, most of which easily could have been handled with a few lines of dialogue. We don't necessarily have to believe that such a power could exist in the real world, but we do in the film's own universe, and the lack of those "rules" here doesn't help matters. Nor does the fact that much of the film feels like reheated leftovers from the "X-Men" flicks, what with their mutant characters being hunted down due to their unique capabilities, and that such hunters here, known as Paladins, are neither explained nor explored.
Following an extended prologue showing us the main character's teenage years featuring a crush, a bully, and an unexpected trip to the library courtesy of falling through the ice on a cold body of water -- complete with unnecessary voice-over dialogue to explain everything to us -- the film gets around to the meat and potatoes of its story.
And that concerns some unexplained group of agents who go around finding, capturing and killing these special people because, as one not so subtly exclaims, only God should have the power to be everywhere at once. That's a valid point, but the fact that it comes from Samuel L. Jackson sporting jet-white hair, his usual intense demeanor, and his "kiss of death" movie choice aura of recent, makes it sound fairly silly, a point that unfortunately permeates much of the proceedings.
Some intentional humor comes courtesy of behavior and remarks by another "jumper" character played by Jamie Bell who wants Jackson's character dead. It's too bad the movie isn't about him, as he's far more interesting than the one played by Hayden Christensen. The latter thankfully doesn't stink up the place as badly as he did in the "Star Wars" prequels, but he simply can't breathe much life into his part as he proved he could do in "Shattered Glass" and "Life as a House."
Rachel Bilson appears as the standard-issue love interest who isn't aware of the unique particulars and then finds herself in over her head. Her performance is nothing more than okay, but the part is severely underwritten, and thanks to negligible chemistry between her and Christensen, we don't really care about them and/or whether they manage to elude Jackson.
Speaking of barely fleshed out roles, Michael Rooker plays the present but otherwise absent father, while Diane Lane mysteriously but only occasionally appears as the long-absent mother character. We know next to nothing about any of them, meaning some footage was left on the cutting room floor, or there's more info to come if a sequel gets made. It's hard to say which is true, especially when Kristen Stewart ("Into the Wild," "Panic Room") shows up at the very end playing Lane's daughter. The fact that a notable actress appears in what's otherwise a throwaway, momentary part indicates something more, but by the time she appears, we could care less.
While Liman gets in a few decent sequences of inanimate objects being "jumped" from one locale to another to be used in battle ("Look out for that bus!"), the overall teleportation elements don't come off as fun or entertaining as one might have otherwise imagined, especially considering the underlying premise of being able to travel anywhere in the world.
Considerable green was obviously spent on the film's special effects, but some of that should have gone to a better and certainly more fleshed out script. I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but it doesn't seem likely that the film will be received well enough to warrant a sequel that might fill in the considerable blanks left by this one. Unlike the lyrics of the old Van Halen song, there isn't enough here that you might as well jump on over to see "Jumper." It rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
![[Screen It]](/images/underground_header.jpg)