Jumper

This movie has a lot going for it. Its directed by Doug Liman, the guy who did the Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Edge of Tomorrow, three movies I really enjoyed. Its a great concept, rich with a lot of potential for a lot of stories and interesting effects.

So this was practically a lay up... what happened guys?

Jumper follows the story of a guy named David Rice (played by Hayden Christiensen... sigh... we'll get to that). David realizes at a young age that he is able to teleport through space. Any place he can imagine in his head, he'll be sent there immediately.

Because his mother left him when he was young and his dad is a douche because... well he yells at him once, David decides to run away and live in New York.

In order to survive, he teleports his way into a bank vault and steals a lot of money, enough for him to live a life of lavish and pretty much do whatever he wants.

So here's an interesting story, a kid runs away from home, has the means to live his life with no responsibility whatsoever, there's an interesting arch there for him to be an interesting character... or not.

Nope David is just your normal suave well balanced adult. Sure he doesn't work, but who needs to if you're a jumper right?

Well his behavior is soon noticed when he is paid a visit by good old Samuel L Jackson. His name is Roland in this film... but let's be honest, this was just Sam Jackson. David is attacked by this guy but manages to get away with a good amount of cash and go back to Ann Arbor Michigan where he grew up.

But instead of hiding out and then figuring out who Sam Jackson is in order to get his carefree life back or starting over in a different place, he decides this is a good time to look up a girl he always had the hots for in high school, his old friend Milly (played by Rachel Bilson).

David shows up, asks Milly to go to Rome with him but not before he gets in a fight with a random dude and jumps him into a bank vault in New York... because that won't have any consequences whatsoever.

So of course he takes Milly to Rome, she knows there's something off about him but hey, its Hayden Christensen, he's hot.

While playing let's trespass in the Colosseum, David meets Griffin who conveniently explains the war between Jumpers and Paladins. Apparently its a war that's been going on for years and the Paladins are going to hunt David down till he's dead.

Well David is arrested after a quick scuffle, but gets out pretty quick and while he's been nothing but suspicious, Milly still goes with him every step of the way until he just dumps her at the airport.

Then I'm not totally sure where the movie goes. David kind of recruits Griffin to fight the Paladins... sort of. Then goes and gets Milly and brings her back to Griffins lair... which he apparently wasn't suppose to do but Griffin never told him that was something he shouldn't have done, and then the Paladins get to the lair and they fight for a while until Griffin takes there machine that can keep portals open... somehow but not before Sam Jackson captures Milly and then David and Griffin fight over a bomb Griffin was going to use until Griffin loses and David goes back, teleports Milly's apartment away, kills off the other Paladins and strands Sam Jackson in the middle of no where. The End.

If you can't tell, this movie is kind of a mess. Where do I even begin to point out the things wrong with this film.

First off, nothing in this movie is developing David as a person. He's still the same person in the beginning as he is in the end except he's kind of dating Milly now, I don't know if they're even exclusive.

Everything that happens in this movie just happens. There is no really constructive dialogue... at all in this film. Its just one jump (no pun intended) to the next jump and just a bunch of effects pointing out how good the effects of this movie are. And they're not bad... not great, but good.

And the fact of the matter is, there isn't a plot to this movie... and there should have been. I'm not saying that because its a story and I'm expecting a plot, even though that is true. But this movie should have been better. Its a story about a guy who can teleport. There are a lot of things you can do with that story! Its basically a superhero story! Now I know this was prior to Iron Man and Superhero films were not as good back then, but its the guy who did Bourne Identity and would eventually do Edge of Tomorrow... for real?

As far as individual performances go... what do you think?

Its Hayden Christensen! What did you expect?

He's just... bad... There is no getting around it, he's just bad.He was bad as Anakin in the all the prequel films and he's bad here.

Now I try and be as fair to Hayden Christensen, maybe this isn't the place to say it, but I can't say that he was the absolute worst thing about the Star Wars Prequel films... maybe the second worst, but I always thought that maybe it was just the script. And the script isn't good here either... but he's just bad. I can't really say anything else. He's not really an incredibly interesting character and Christensen doesn't do anything to help that out.

Then there's Rachel Bilson as Milly. Rachel Bilson really hasn't done anything besides The OC... and it shows here. Again, the script isn't good, but neither is Rachel Bilson.

That being said, she's gorgeous. Hands down, the hottest to come out of The OC... and I only know that because I saw commercials for it when I used to watch 24... a very manly show...

But Milly as a character is just dumb. Her friend who everyone thought was dead shows up out of the blue, gets in a fight and you follow him to Rome and have sex with him. He's acting all suspicious in Rome and instead of leaving and just finding a way back home, she stays with him until he leaves her. And when she finally gets to a point where she can't take the lies and mystery anymore, she gets captured and her mind resets and she's back in his arms. There was nothing to pursue here, she's just a pretty face who is really dumb.

Jaime Bell plays Griffin and... he was boring. I haven't seen Jaime Bell in much and he's expected to be in the new Fantastic Four movie... not really a vote of confidence for me on that one so far. (But Kate Mara is in it so I have a little bit of faith... I should do a post on that movie soon)

Finally, there's Sam Jackson.

I am of the belief that Sam Jackson is entertaining in almost everything he is in. But he mailed it in in this one. Big time. He's just boring. His character is boring. Why did they make his hair white? There's even a part where the paint from the hair got on his face and the movie just continued. Not that his hair color is entirely important, but when the film is that lazy that it can't even stop the shot and clean the make up malfunction off Sam Jackson's face, you know you have a problem.

And that's the problem with this movie. It could have been a really interesting movie. I've never read the book its based off of, but even if the book was boring, this movie could have been done better. Better actors could have been hired, better scripts could have been made. This movie could have at the very least been a good science fiction action film, but no. Someone said, oh its a movie about a guy teleporting, nobody has seen that before, let's just have a movie of him disappearing and reappearing on the screen, I'm sure people will love that.

They didn't.

This movie was fun when I was kid and didn't think too hard about movies, and I thought I would have something good to say about this movie and yeah the idea is really interesting, but that's just it. The idea. The execution of that idea was really shitty and I realize this movie isn't just an entertaining throwaway film (although it is about 88 minutes so its really short) its just a bad film overall. The best this movie can be credited as is a one off 88 minute action reel. And that's good if you're looking for a mindless watch, all I'm saying is that this movie had a lot of potential and wasted all of it.

But what do you think of Jumper? Comment and Discuss below! Or you can follow and shoot me a tweet on Twitter @cmhaugen24

I'll leave you with this. This has to be my favorite Samuel L. Jackson moment of all time. Yes, above Star Wars, above Die Hard, above any Tarantino film he's been in, my favorite moment of Samuel L. Jackson has to be this scene from Deep Blue Sea. Enjoy!