A movie about someone who can teleport? Well, I wish I could teleport to a better movie.  

Just kidding, it is pretty decent.  

“Jumper” was directed by Doug Liman and stars Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, and Samuel L. Jackson.  

It tells the story of a boy who finds out he can teleport to anywhere in the world. Once he grows up, he is hunted by a group of mercenaries who vow to kill every teleporting “jumper” in the world.  

To start, the film’s concept is quite simple as you can tell and can open the doors for the filmmakers to do anything they want in terms of environment and scale.

Many scenes start in New York City then in a matter of seconds our main character David Rice, played by Anakin Skywalker star Hayden Christensen, is in a far place like Egypt.  

This helps the film feel so huge in scale, especially since the actors are filming in those locations for parts of the film.  

I also credit the film for being able to move from one place to another without feeling jarred. However, there are times when it is a little confusing about where David is in the film.  

The acting is mediocre at best. Hayden Christensen does a decent job but there are times where his line delivery seems wooden rather than natural.  

Samuel L. Jackson and especially Jamie Bell are the ones that give this movie a jolt of life throughout. 

Their characters mirror each other quite nicely as Jackson plays a leader of a mercenary group that kill jumpers while Bell’s character is a jumper that actively kills those very mercenaries.  

This adds a decent buildup to their action-filled confrontation at the end of the film.  

The action in “Jumper” is definitely creative and uses the powers of the protagonist in an entertaining way.  

For example, there is a scene were David fights Griffin, played by Bell, for a bomb detonator.  

This leads to a scene where the two are zipping all over the world trying to get away from each other.

The creativity of this sequence is the highlight of the film as it nicely moves the scene along and implements the change of location in a coherent way.  

The thing that hurts this film in my eyes is the lack of emotional moments with the characters.  

We as an audience really have no reason to like David Rice or have a connection with him as a character. Because of this, the film feels very bland and forgettable based on the emotional impact it fails to make.  

The same can be said about the film’s visual style. 

There really is nothing visually to set “Jumper” apart from other action movies other than the vast number of locations they use throughout. Even with the locations, there is really nothing to write home about.  

Overall, “Jumper” is a fun and fairly creative film that is faltered by its lack of identity as a film.  

My overall rating: 3.5/5 

Drew Coffey is a sophomore television/video production major. He can be reached at akcoffey@eiu.edu or 217-581-2812.