'Jumper' Has Some Explaining to Do

by Brett Parker

I find teleporting to be a very interesting concept of science fiction. How fun it would be to travel across great distances within the blink of an eye? It is this fascination with the subject that led me to believe that Jumper could actually be an exceptional science fiction film. If director Doug Liman gave the care and precision to this material that, say, James Cameron gave to his Terminator movies, we could have one hell of a film here. Alas, Liman’s film lacks precise care and precision and we’re left with a half-baked sci-fi action vehicle that loves the action part, but not so much the sci-fi.

However, I still found myself entertained by this action filler. I remember in my younger years I used to love sci-fi adventures and sci-fi adventures used to be loveable. Somewhere along the line, they stopped being fun and imaginative and grew more mindless and redundant. I’m willing to give Jumper the benefit of the doubt because some passages are rather fun and even though its imagination comes in short supply, it is nonetheless enjoyable while it’s there. I’ll take a half-realized teleporting flick over a fully-imagined alien invasion film most of the time. After junk-food like I, Robot and Alien vs. Predator, Jumper feels like a steak dinner.

As the film opens, we meet the young David Rice (Max Theiriot), a high school outcast who one day tries to impress a young girl named Millie (Anna Sophia Robb) with a snow globe. An obnoxious young bully named Mark (Jesse James, with his red hands and mean face…just kidding) comes along and throws the globe onto a thinly frozen river, forcing David to chase after it. David falls through the ice and is magically teleported to a nearby library still wet from the lake. Soon after, David realizes he has the power to teleport himself anywhere at anytime. All he has to do is imagine someplace and he arrives there within the blink of an eye. Years go by and David grows into a young adult (now played by Hayden Christensen) who spends his days “jumping” around the globe and stealing money from countless vaults to finance a lavish lifestyle where he can buy, and do, just about anything.

Life seems sweet, until a silver haired man named Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) shows up and vows to put a stop to all the fun. Roland is the leader of a fanatical cult that apparently dedicates their lives to hunting and murdering all the teleporting “jumpers.” Why, you ask? “Only God should have the power to be everywhere!” snarls Roland, and that’s pretty much the only reason ever given to the audience. Roland and his men mean business. They devised an arsenal of serious weaponry that is technologically designed to stop Jumpers dead in their tracks.

Fearing for his life, David feels he’ll be safe in the one place he thinks no one can find him: his childhood hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan that he abandoned years ago. While in town, David looks up Millie (now played by Rachel Bilson) and beats the living hell out of the bully, Mark (now played by Wyatt Earp…just kidding-Teddy Dunn). The rest of the film shows David trying to romance Millie, escape from Roland, and enlist the help of fellow jumper Griffin (Jamie Bell) to assist him with both situations.

The biggest crime Jumper commits is that it doesn’t give us enough time to get better situated with the idea of teleporting. We have so many questions and we want to see everything David is capable of, but before the film reaches its half-hour mark, Roland shows up and the action is off and running and never really pauses to develop its ideas. The film never really establishes a firm set of rules and consequences for the teleporting, therefore making plot complications underwhelming. Since Jumper never really displays an intelligence, it could’ve shown some humor. I think some Back to the Future lightheartedness would’ve been very welcome in this material. If you were a guy who could travel anywhere at any instant, surely you’d have a grand sense of humor about things. Or if there was a villain with a ridiculous haircut who devoted his life to the genocide of super humans, surely there would be a preposterousness about him that could be intentionally funny. With Doug Liman at the helm, who has made very funny movies about very intense situations (Go, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) this doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request.

Speaking of Liman, it’s also rather surprising that the romantic aspects of his film show up dead on arrival. His Swingers is one of the great comedies about dating and Mr. & Mrs. Smith was skilled at presenting observational relationship humor in the face of excessive action. So it’s extremely disappointing to watch David and Millie carry out a relationship with absolutely nothing interesting to talk about. Their scenes of dialogue are awful. To say it was written on auto-pilot would be an insult to aviators everywhere. It’s a real shame, because both Christensen and Bilson appear to have a nice chemistry.

Christensen is an actor who’s had a rather curious career so far. He landed the role of a lifetime as Anakin Skywalker (the young Darth Vader) in the Star Wars prequels and failed miserably. He appeared to be trying with considerable effort, but he never mastered the complicated nuances of the role and he looked painfully out of place. Just when moviegoers were ready to write him off, a funny thing happened: Christensen personified perfection in two small indie fares. In Shattered Glass, he skillfully conveyed the deceptive and childlike nature of weasel journalist, Stephen Glass; then came Factory Girl, in which Christensen did the impossible and nailed a spot-on portrayal of Bob Dylan that could stand with all the performances in I’m Not There. With Jumper, Christensen solidifies that he is a promising actor.

It is mainly the performances and the action sequences that make the underdone Jumper and enjoyable ride. The special effects make teleporting a sight to behold and the action scenes very fun to watch. I enjoyed the chase between David and Griffin around the world. Jackson makes a great villain and Bell brings welcomed energy to the film. And even though Bilson has nothing great to say, she is still very attractive and likeable and I hope Hollywood gives her something better to do in the future.

If only this film had stronger logic. It sounds too easy that Jumpers can just imagine anything and show up there! It reminds me of an old joke from grade school. A guy learns he has the power to jump up, shout a location, and will be magically transported there. Upon leaping, the man forgets what he was going to say and shouts, “Crap!”