When you go to a movie primarily to see Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker duke it out, chances are you're not looking for cinematic gold. But let's face it, there are good sci-fi action films, and there are mediocre ones. Jumper, despite its abundance of slick effects and former citizens of Coruscant, falls decidedly into the latter category. Now, before you have time to consider what a huge nerd that last sentence makes me, let's try and figure out just what bugged me about this odd little film.
Essentially, the concept presented to us is a very simple, very cool one. There are people, "jumpers," who have the ability to teleport to any place they've ever seen, even in pictures. The price jumpers pay for this ability is that they are forever hunted by a crew of people who will stop at nothing to catch and kill them. These people are called "paladins," and they are especially fond of the injuring-friends-and-family-members-until-you-reveal-yourself method of hunting.
This sounds to me like a setup for a rather interesting super-hero/sci-fi film. All it needs is a plot. And this is where Jumper falls flat. Rather than coming up with a real story line, the film attempts to turn a simple setup into a whole film. Occasionally a new character or the slightest of twists is introduced, but for the most part we are beaten over the head with this initial premise as these awful people chase each other around for 90 minutes. I was pretty excited that the film spent several of those minutes in Rome, as I lived there for 3 months and was able recognize all the shooting locations, but I cannot even begin to name all of the other places that we are "jumped" to during this cat-and-mouse game. The gimmick loses its immense cool potential as we begin to realize that "gimmick" is all the movie's got.
After describing my take on this film to a co-worker, he disappointedly told me that he'd thought the movie looked "kinda cool." I cannot deny it: Jumper is definitely kinda cool. Hell, it's about the power of immediate and unlimited teleportation for God's sake! So if you're a sci-fi superfan who doesn't mind shallow characters and trite dialogue, by all means, head to the theater! Otherwise, I think you'll be safe waiting for that distant night when this one jumps its way onto HDNet.
Comments