< Continued from page 1

About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Don’t get suckered into buying a ticket for Jumper because the trailer looks semi-interesting. The trailer doesn’t convey just how disjointed the storyline is or how the film’s lead characters are repeatedly involved in senseless activities. Instead of fighting Roland with a gun or a knife or any normal weapon, Griffin and David use flame throwers and a double-decker bus. Wouldn’t it be more effective to grab a shotgun from any of the thousands of gun stores in the world and blow him away?

And couldn’t the screenwriters have added at least one normal character who questions what’s going on? Instead, there’s an annoying and useless narrative track that provides what’s apparently supposed to be gripping backstory we can’t do without. It doesn’t do the trick.

Where the power to teleport comes from never pops up. The hows, whats, and most importantly whys are also never addressed in Jumper. Jumpers jump, Paladins kill them, and nobody on the planet seems to notice grown men suddenly appearing out of nowhere in public locations (except for one small child in an airport). There are wormholes, cars flying all over the place, banks robbed, people killed, and no one cares. A teenager goes missing for 10 years, is presumed dead, and no one cares when he shows up alive and well. If no one in the make-believe world of Jumper gives a hoot about any of these things, neither should audiences.

GRADE: F

Jumper was directed by Doug Liman and is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some language and brief sexuality.

Theatrical Release Date: February 14, 2008