Jumper - Is it worth jumping into a theater to see this movie?

The Plot

David Rice, a young loner in high school, discovers he has the ability to teleport himself anywhere in the world. Seizing the opportunity to escape his alcoholic father, David sets out to explore the world, financing a luxurious lifestyle by jumping into bank vaults and "borrowing" wads of cash.

Six years later, David meets another Jumper, Griffin, and discovers that for centuries Jumpers have been at war with Paladins, a religious order that believes "only God should have the power to be everywhere" and that wants to destroy the Jumpers.

David manages to escape the lead Paladin, Roland, and rescue his high-school girlfriend, Millie.

The Good

Neat special effects. When Jumpers jump, they create a wormhole between where they are and where they're going, causing a visible disturbance in the fabric of space called a jump scar.

Jamie Bell as Griffin, the other Jumper, does a good job. He would have been a better choice for the lead.

The Not So Good

Hayden Christensen, as the older David, is as wooden in Jumper as he was in Star Wars II and III. He has the potential to be a good actor, but he really needs to lighten up and express his emotions better. One gets the impression that nothing that happens is a surprise to him because he's read the script. He needs to remember that his character doesn't have that foreknowledge.

Rachel Bilson, as the older Millie, isn't any better than Hayden. Her younger incarnation, played by AnnaSophia Robb, was much more appealing.

Samuel L. Jackson's blond hair. Hu? Why? It just looks weird.

The special features on the DVD explain that the authors of the screenplay, David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls, and Simon Kinberg, purposely deviated from the book by Steven Gould. Too bad. Friends have told us they've read the book, enjoyed it, and have no desire to see the story butchered by the movie.

Goyer, Uhls, and Kinberg wrote a lot of background material for each of the characters and for the history and future of the conflict between the Jumpers and the Paladins. They anticipated that if Jumper does well at the box-office they'd produce a sequel or even a prequel. But the characters and the story in this episode are just too thin to hold our attention.

At the end of the movie, David tells Roland that he's not like the other Jumpers; he won't turn bad. And to prove it, instead of dropping Roland into a shark pool, he leaves him in a cave on the side of a mountain. Maybe his assertion would have carried more weight if he had left Roland somewhere that would give him a better chance of survival. And maybe we'd believe him if he had shown the slightest inclination to use his powers for the benefit of mankind instead of for purely selfish pursuits.

When David and Roland first meet, Roland has the IOUs that David left in the bank vaults he plundered. But there's no indication he ever actually tried to return any of the money. Surely someone with David's ability could find some legitimate way to earn piles of cash.

In one scene, David is at home watching television and sees a news report showing flood victims being carried downstream to their death. The reporter says that it would take a miracle to reach them in time. Without any hesitation, without so much as a second's thought, David goes out for a stroll around the world.

There's nothing to even hint that the Paladins are wrong, that their hatred and distrust of the Jumpers is misplaced and there's nothing in David's character to attract us to him.

In the end, Jumper has some cool effects and good potential, but there's not enough to draw us back for another installment.

Random Notions rating: 2 out of 5