Director: Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Identity)Cast: Hayden Christensen (Star Wars, Life as a House), Rachel Bilson (The Last Kiss, The OC), Samuel L. Jackson (Star Wars, Snakes on a Plane), Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot)
The Deal: David Rice (Christensen) discovers that he has the ability to teleport anywhere he likes. Unbeknownst to him, there is a war between teleporters (known as "jumpers") and paladins, a group of people who feel this ability is an abomination. After reconnecting with his high school flame Millie (Bilson), he finds himself being hunted by the paladin Roland (Jackson) and meets another jumper, Griffin (Bell).
Thoughts: This first flaw occurred long before shooting ever started, and that is with the casting of Christensen as the lead. As anyone who's seen the Star Wars prequels can attest, he has almost no acting talent, and that streak continues here. His character, despite having a rather interesting ability, is quite boring and lazy (he teleported 2 feet across the sofa to get the remote). He just has no presence on screen, and if the audience can't connect with the lead character in any way, it's almost possible for the film to succeed.
Bilson's performance wasn't necessarily terrible, but it's very forgettable. When the lovely Bilson is in a movie and you can't remember much about it, that's not a good sign. As for Jackson, his character had potential to be yet another badass role in Jackson's long career. Unfortunately, his lines weren't very menacing, and his silver hair is distracting far more than it is menacing. I think it's unfair that the studio advertised Diane Lane so much, as she had less than 5 minutes of screen time, and unless there's a sequel (ugghhh) her character had very little relevance to the main story arc.
When it comes down to this, the script just wasn't what it could have been, and this may be a big contributer to the underwhelming performances. The plot was all over the place, as if it was a jumper itself. Despite knowing there were paladins hunting him, David for some reason refused to lay low at all, jumping for anything and everything. The biggest flaw is towards the end of the film, when David teleportss and entire house to save Millie. The guy has had powers for hardly no time at all, has used them simply for shits and giggles, and now he's the most powerful jumper in the world? It just isn't justified.
Verdict: Despite "jumping" being a rather interesting idea, the script and acting are absolutely terrible. One of the worst films I've seen, so no need to waste your time and money. ☆
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