The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: The Mix

Media Credit: Courtesy of 21st Century Fox 'Jumper' tells the story of David Rice, who can teleport.

Director Doug Liman kick-started an action trilogy for the new century with "The Bourne Identity" and gave Matt Damon a platform loaded with frenetic pacing and revealing flashbacks. Liman brings that same energy to "Jumper," a teenaged superpowers movie, but what it needs is a hero.

David Rice (Hayden Christensen) has led a life of luxury ever since discovering the ability to "jump," or teleport through space to anywhere he pleases. He robs banks with ease to fund a grand apartment and constant world tourism. It's fun to watch David use his powers to get easy money, mainly because the audience would do the same thing.

For all the fun David has, Christensen plays him so stiffly that the special effects look realistic by comparison. This makes an odd kind of sense, given that David leads his jumper life in secret, but his social problems don't figure into the story. His romantic troubles, unfortunately, do.

David seeks out his high school crush, Millie (Rachel Bilson), but their chemistry has no spark and no mixture. Millie is a sex object to be saved later - she flies with David to Rome on a whim, sleeps with him, then gradually asks who he really is. There's no signal that these two characters ever had a deeper connection beyond sharing a class years ago. David, who is willing to forego rescuing the stranded people he sees on live TV in order to sleep with anonymous women on the other side of the world, just can't get over his nostalgia.

Roland (Samuel Jackson) can't get over David and the other jumpers in the world. He leads the Paladins, a group of jumper-hunters who use Taser rods and ropes to stall jumpers before killing them. After David teleports with smug privilege for the whole movie, it's gratifying to watch his "Don't Tase me, bro!" moment. Roland despises jumpers for being "abominations," but that's the depth of his motivation. He says all jumpers "go bad," but the other main jumper character, Griffin (Jamie Bell), is the most righteous and interesting personality.

If David is a moody Nightcrawler, then Griffin is a spunky Doctor Who: Griffin is more clever, funnier and more exciting in a fight. "Jumper" is, regrettably, David's story, even if the reason for watching comes from special effects wielded by second bananas.

The movie's 90-minute run time leaves plenty of time for an exciting jumper showdown, as well as indulgent shots of Bilson, but not a fulfilling conclusion. A plot hole of a twist at the end begs less for a sequel than it does for this franchise to jump out of the public eye.

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