Action thriller falls flat
This is one superhero story that's unlikely to warrant a second instalment
A science-fiction action thriller, Jumper is standard Hollywood popcorn entertainment. It resembles the travel agency brochures - they promise so much, but in the end deliver very little.
The story begins as David, a geek played by Hayden Christensen, discovers he has the power to teleport himself to anywhere on the planet.
So he runs away from his abusive father, teleports himself to a bank vault, grabs as much money as he can and transforms himself into a 007-wannabe, a globe-trotting womaniser.
As the story unfolds, we realise that David is not the only one blessed with this superpower to walk through the walls. These 'jumpers' have been at war for centuries with the Paladins, people who kill jumpers because they find the teleporting powers a threat to civilisation.
What director Doug Liman has in mind is probably this: fantasy that an average guy can relate to, plus plenty of special effects, plus a likeable star as the hero plus plot strands left untied equals another lucrative franchise.
The problem is that Jumper is so lame that no one will bother watching a sequel.
It is not that the film is badly directed. There are some slick moments, such as the early scene in which David falls through the ice and ends up in a library, wet and freezing.
But the magic begins to falter as similar visual tricks are replayed as if to torture the audiences who, between naps, may wish to teleport themselves out of the cinema.
Another problem is that, while Christensen is a heart-throb, his character David is not very nice.
Instead of teleporting himself to the White House to overhear military plans, he prefers to go surfing in Hawaii after hanging out with a girl in Britain.
With great power comes great responsibility, according to Spider-Man. But to David the jumper, more power simply means more sunbathing and more girlfriends.
So when David gets harassed by Roland (Samuel L. Jackson, who sports funny white hair), the leader of Paladins, it seems to us that his punishment is well justified.
David isn't being particularly nice to his childhood sweetheart (Rachel Bilson) either, simply taking her to Rome with money stolen from the bank, which is no different from passing on second-hand gifts.
Jumper, with its paper-thin plot, fails badly as a movie. It's perfect material for a video game, though. Video game publisher Brash Entertainment reportedly said: 'From the very first script read, we knew this had to be made into a game.'
So why bother to make a movie in the first place?
Jumper is now showing
