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Doug Liman, Jumper

by Chris Flippo
02/17/2008

Jumper will surprise you. Its ending will grab a hold of you, and no matter what, you won’t be able to shake it. I know I couldn’t. Outside of The Mist, I would say it is the most shocking ending I have seen in awhile. As the credits started rolling, I was stunned by how such talented people could make such an incoherent film.

These are all people who have made movies I have enjoyed in the past. Director Doug Liman gave us Go, The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. David S. Goyer helped pen the script, and he was the man who also helped pen Batman Begins! And then there is Samuel L. Jackson... who here disproves an earlier statement I made. As it turns out, I do not enjoy him in anything and everything.

Jumper starts out well enough before it takes a sky dive. David Rice (Hayden Christensen) is a man born with a genetic anomaly that allows him to teleport around the world. He robs banks, sunbathes atop pyramids, and has one-night stands with Swedish girls. David doesn’t need a job. He doesn’t have to worry about catching a New York taxi. Life is pretty good.

Then, out of nowhere, Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) shows up at his apartment to beat the living daylights out of him. He says he is with a religious group called the Paladins, who says having this power is sacrilegious... I think. Their reason for trying to kill Jumpers is never made entirely clear. Maybe its jealousy. Maybe it’s hate. Maybe its for the convenience of the plot. Who knows? I know I sure don’t.

Not content to stop at the kitchen sink, Jumper even has the required Long-Lost-Love Subplot. Over the course of the film, David comes back into contact with his childhood love, Millie (Rachel Bilson). I don’t normally mind romantic subplots (in fact, there aren’t many action movies without them), but the one in Jumper works only as filler between action scenes. There is no spark between these two rather bland characters.

Most critics love writing negative reviews. They look forward to it because they can bully a film. However, I don’t enjoy it as much as I do telling you that a film is good. Any lover of the cinema should express more delight in talking about a good film than a bad one. I wanted to like Jumper. I really did.

You see, the premise is not a bad one. The teleporting device could have worked if it was used to show the darker side of a hero. Dear Reader, if you had the ability, could you honestly say you would never get into any mischief? How many of us would even have a job when the inside of a bank vault is a nose-twitch away? That could have made for an interesting movie. Super heroes are always best served with a side of pathos.

It is in the execution that things go awry. During the frenzied final third of Jumper, David starts jumping from London to Paris to Tokyo every thirty seconds or so. There is no development or pay-off. The last third is just a gimmick that goes nowhere.

Come to think of it, that’s a good way to describe Jumper as a whole.