Jumper

Jumper

Directed by Doug Liman (PG-13)

A young man teleports around the globe before returning to Wisconsin.

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Jumper is “a flight of fancy that never fully takes off,” said Claudia Puig in USA Today. In this sci-fi thriller, Hayden Christensen plays David Rice, who, as a child, discovers he can instantaneously “jump” from one place to the next. He first seeks freedom from his abusive father, but as he ages into his 20s, Rice begins teleporting more aggressively. The film plays like a video version of a Frommer’s guide, as Christensen surfs in Fiji, lunches atop the Sphinx, and parties in London. But his antics soon anger certain telekinetic enemies, headed by Samuel L. Jackson, whose silver hairdo makes him look like R&B star Sisqo. Christensen may go everywhere, but director Doug Liman fails to transport us cinematically, said Michael Rechtshaffen in The Hollywood Reporter. Jumper seems to make up rules—not to mention the script—as it goes along, and “huge chunks of the story” seem to be missing from the 90-minute final cut. It’s as if Liman himself is a jumper, creating a life “with all the boring parts cut out,” said Bryan Lowry in Variety. The film speeds to its climax, leaving subplots unfinished and the audience unfulfilled, while Liman appears to be itching to “jump ahead to a bigger, better-written, more satisfying sequel.”