Jumper

Scott Hardie: “It was ok.”

Here's a concept: A movie that shows what it would be like if an ordinary man had the ability to teleport, and also if he and everyone he knows was brain-damaged. The characters in Jumper are short on imagination, personality, and vocabulary, like the movie itself. It dreams up a man who can teleport at will, who realizes the moral implications of his talent, and the best it can do with him is have him be attacked by nameless agents who have scarcely any stated reason for coming after him?

[Spoilers ahead.] Just when you think it can't get dumber than that, it turns the man into a superhero who references comics by name. Except he's not interested in saving anyone – it shows him ignoring dying people who only he could rescue, then has him abandon an unwitting fellow traveler to be crushed under a tank. It's one thing for the movie to pass off comical scenes where he leaves wide-eyed bystanders atop historical monuments in his travels; it's another thing to show him kill innocent people and not care. How many different writers altered this script over time?

The only thing to praise in the movie is the action, which takes advantage of the film's premise in some interesting ways, and doesn't skimp on the special effects. But the rest of the movie is a dull waste of potential, starting with a premise that could lead to a hundred interesting stories and choosing one that isn't. It adds insult to brain-cell injury by informing you constantly that you're only watching a prequel; the rest of the Jumper series will no doubt bore audiences for years to come.

− February 18, 2008 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply