Leaps of logic

>> Teleportation thriller Jumper
wastes a cool premise

by MARK SLUTSKY

There’s something dispiriting about a movie that so transparently could have been much better, and such is the case with Jumper, the new film from director Doug Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity). Not to say that Jumper might have been a masterpiece, but with a better script and cast, it could have been a fun and exhilarating action movie. The story has a lot of creative potential, but the filmmaking isn’t up to the premise, and it’s frustrating.

Based on a well-reviewed young adult novel by Steven Gould, Jumper stars Hayden Christensen as David Rice, who discovers at a young age that he has the power to teleport wherever he likes. Naturally, he uses the ability to rob banks, tour the world, and perhaps most importantly, escape his abusive father, though he still carries a torch for his high school crush Millie (Rachel Bilson of The O.C.).

The trouble starts for our mutant hero with the entrance of Samuel L. Jackson, the head of a group of Jumper-hating religious fanatics called Paladins. Using electrified whip thingamajigs that stunt the teleportation ability, they hunt down and kill Jumpers and their loved ones, and Christensen’s next on their list.

You could have fun with this idea; who hasn’t daydreamed about being able to teleport wherever you like? But Jumper takes no joy, no invention in its premise. And annoyingly, the film takes so many leaps of logic that the teleportation is the most believable thing. As I watched it, I grew infuriated as my objections to the plot kept piling up: if the Paladins can follow the Jumpers through their rifts in space, why not just teleport 500 feet up in the air? Why doesn’t Christensen just use his powers to drop a live grenade in Jackson’s pocket and take off?

Christensen has been good when he’s supposed to be unlikeable (see Shattered Glass), but he just doesn’t work here. His character is morally ambiguous to begin with, but he makes him completely unsympathetic. He’s playing Annakin Skywalker all over again: petulant, whiny, entitled. A more charismatic actor could have pulled this off, but the casting kills a movie that’s already misguided in so many ways.

JUMPER OPENS THIS FRIDAY, FEB. 15

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