If nothing else, Jumper does live up to its name, but probably not in the way that director Douglas Liman intended. The movie tries to be too many things at once—a coming of age story, a chase movie, and a superhero story—but in doing so it fails to have a coherent story arc. Instead it rattles around like an ADHD hamster darting from one end of its cage to another, occasionally giving the audience some glimpses of interesting ideas or cool teleportation scenes, but it never stays with any one theme long enough to do anything with them.

The movie is based on the young adult novel of the same name by Stephen Gould, and although I haven’t read it, I gather from the cast and crew interviews that the movie only bears a superficial resemblance to it. The film begins with a voiceover by Hayden Christensen describing how great his life is because he can teleport. Then it moves into a flashback showing how he was an awkward boy with a missing mother and an alcoholic father. A near-death experience unlocks his ability to teleport, and Christensen immediately uses his power to run away, rob banks, and in general, live the sweet life.

Then the movie jumps and we’re introduced to Roland (Samuel L. Jackson), a member of a secret organization devoted to destroying Jumpers for the vague reason that “only God should have the ability to be everywhere at once.” Although it seems like Jackson has fun with this role, he’s also clearly phoning in this performance. More than likely this has to do with the poor quality of the script, but after watching Resurrecting the Champ, I can’t help but think that Jackson could have done more. Nevertheless, once Roland appears, the movie shifts from a promising story about self-discovery with teleportation serving as a metaphor for running away into a rather bland caper/chase movie.

One of the more perplexing plot points takes place during this section; while he’s on the run from this super-secret and highly dangerous organization, David inadvertently hooks up with his high school crush, Millie (Rachel Bilson), and takes her on a abrupt trip to Rome. Now, forgive me for going on a brief tangent, but heading off to Rome with a guy you haven’t seen in nearly eight years does not seem like a smart idea. Millie decides to go on this trip after taking the whole of ten minutes to catch up with her former best friend. She clearly knows that David is hiding something, but she goes without a second thought because she’s in love with him, or bored, or opportunistic. I’m sure the moviemakers would want you to believe it’s for love, but the shriveled, black prune I call a heart just doesn’t buy it.

At any rate, in Rome the movie makes its final jump with the introduction of Griffin (Jamie Bell) into a rather awkward superhero movie. The only thing good about this jump is that Jamie Bell completely steals the show. Griffin is a hundred times more likable and interesting than David, and I would have much more enjoyed a movie about him.

Unfortunately, most of the movie centers on Hayden Christensen being incredibly whiny, selfish, and stupid—much like he was in the Star Wars prequels. There are plenty of moments when you just want Griffin to slap some sense into him, or for Roland to stab him. As a rule of thumb, it’s generally not good if your audience is rooting for the hero to die so the person intended as the sidekick can take center stage.

Really, other than Griffin, there’s not much to like in this movie except for the teleportation scenes. This is one of those movies that I could see myself popping in the DVD player from time to time just to watch the fight scenes, because they are a lot of fun, but it’s not enough to make this an enjoyable experience. The lack of coherent plot, the lack of a likable hero, and the lack of any real exploration of any of the concepts in the movie make any enjoyment taken from the special effects scenes hollow and unfulfilling.

The movie is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen format and it does look good. This was, after all, a later winter/early spring movie, and you can see the time and care put into the production. And the audio fares just as well in a clear Dolby DTS Surround format. There was good directionality to the sound effects, and in general, the channels came in clear and understandable.

Commentary by Director Doug Liman, Writer/Producer Simon Kinberg, and Producer Lucas Foster

Jumpstart: David’s Story Animated Graphic Novel (running time: 8:01)
The animation reminds me of the old Marvel cartoons from the 1970s. The story focuses on David’s search for his estranged mother. It’s fairly interesting, but really doesn’t add too much to the story.

Doug Liman’s Jumper: Uncensored (running time: 35:31)
The choppy nature of the movie makes sense after watching this featurette. Apparently Liman’s approach to making a movie based on a novel is to take the bare minimum from the original story and making his version into something completely different. The script went through at least eight rewrites and many of the key characters and plot points (including the Paladins) were created specifically for the movie. There’s also an interesting moment where a crew member talks about how they didn’t want to feel constrained by time tables and how they weren’t a part of the whole Hollywood movie factory, which I’m sure is intended to make us think that they’re cutting edge Indie filmmakers working within the system, but considering the finished product, I think it just illustrates that they didn’t quite know what they were doing.

Jumping Around the World (running time: 10:54)
This is a brief travelogue of some of the major places the crew visited to shoot specific scenes for the movie. There were a few interesting moments, but this didn’t add much to the movie.

Making an Actor Jump (running time: 7:35)
Maybe it’s the nerd in me, but I found this the most interesting featurette. In a very telling moment, Liman talks about how he wanted to treat this as the second teleportation movie, in that he could take teleportation as a given and not really have to focus on it or make it the centerpiece of the movie so he could pay more attention to character development. While I don’t necessarily disagree with this idea, I do think it plays a role in the disconnected nature of the movie.

Jumping From Novel to Film: The Past, Present, and Future of Jumper (running time: 8:07)
The interesting part of this extra feature is how much back story and world building Liman and the writers created for this movie; unfortunately, much of it is left out of the movie. Another revealing part is the interviews with Stephen Gould, the author of the books the movie is based on. Gould seems to have no problem with the radical changes made to his story, and is in fact writing a prequel novel about the character Griffin. This either makes him incredibly easy-going or a sellout, depending on your point of view.

Deleted Scenes (cumulative running time: 11:12)
There are seven deleted scenes in this featurette, and practically all of them should have been left in the movie. Many of the scenes focus on David’s frame of mind and do a great deal to flesh out his character and make him a little more sympathetic. There is also an alternate introduction for Roland, which I think makes him a more three dimensional character and explains his mission better than the simple throwaway line about God and power.

Previz; Future Concepts (running time: 4:29)
In the Jumping From Novel to Film featurette, the producers were clear in their desire to make this movie into a trilogy. Previz looks to be a hastily put together computer animation of a fight from one of the future movies. It’s actually rather fun if you can get past the crude animation.

Trailers (cumulative running time: 2:02
There are two previews, one titled There is no Box for FX’s line of original programming, and the other for the next season of 24.

I remember wanting to watch this, but never got around to it. Now I’m happy that I didn’t, because it’s not worth the money to see on the big screen. The action scenes are fairly exciting and make good use of the whole concept of teleportation, but it’s not worth slogging through the dislocated story and overall mediocre acting. Not recommended.

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20th Century Fox presents Jumper. Directed by Doug Liman. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Diane Lane, and Jamie Bell. Written by David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls, and Simon Kinberg. Running time: 88 minutes. Rated PG-13. Released on DVD: June 10, 2008. Available at Amazon.com

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