Movie Review - 'Jumper'

Jumper

Starring Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell, and Rachel Bilson
Directed by Doug Liman
Rated PG-13

Let’s say that the hook for the movie Jumper isn’t a guy that can teleport, but rather that he tells a very clever joke. For the sake of argument, let’s also say his punchline is “I can’t believe it’s not butter!”

If you had ninety minutes of Hayden Christensen saying “I can’t believe it’s not butter” over and over again, you’d get pretty sick of that movie.

This new sci-fi flick from The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith director Doug Liman has almost nothing in common with his previous successes. There’s very little chemistry between his actors and very little moxie, but a whole lot of showing off.

David Rice (Christensen) first discovers at 15 that he can move from place to place by only wishing it. Over the years, he’s become better at ‘jumping,’ to the point that he leads an extravagant lifestyle financed by unsolvable bank robberies, and he jumps around the world, eating fast food on the top of the Sphinx, surfing in Fiji and picking up stray pub trash in London all in a single day.

But there have to be consequences, of course, and that’s where the evil Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) comes in. He’s been hunting jumpers for a long time, apparently, disguising himself as a federal agent for any number of agencies just to get closer to the scene of David’s crimes.

Of course, for there to be a villain, any formulaic movie would at some point introduce a weakness for the hero, something that could be compromised or even sacrificed. Since Jumper, alarmingly, is incredibly formulaic, David jumps back home to Michigan to sweep the girl on whom he had a boyhood crush (Rachel Bilson) off her feet, having not seen her in years.

And because David has greater power than he even realizes, there should be another jumper who can explain who Roland is and the history behind this magical power. Good thing Jamie Bell was available, or there’s no telling how Jumper would cross that bridge.

The worst part about Jumper is that it relies so heavily on its gimmick that the story within gets totally obscured. It might be easier to count kills in Rambo than particle-altering teleportation effects in this film. David uses it for everything from zapping from Tokyo to Detroit to moving six inches on his couch to grab the remote. Because of how often it’s used, the gimmick loses its strength. And so does the movie.