Jumper

Short review: A weak premise of a film with an ad-hoc plot bolted on in an attempt to keep the audience entertained. It doesn't work.

Longer review: Plot (from trailer): There's these people called jumpers who can teleport themselves see, and then there's these other people called paladins who want to kill all the jumpers.

Now as with most films, I knew the basic plot before I went. I was expecting that the film would fill in the gaps with more plot during the movie. What I wasn't expecting was that the plot I've outlined above would turn out to be the whole shabang. There's nothing else.

Characters pop in and out of the film like they're big name stars cameoing on a TV sitcom. Whole segments of character backstory are tossed in and out of conversation with a single line. Plot progression is sporadic and confusing, particularly so when showing the protagonist trying to do things a normal person could do. There's a good reason for it, but it's never laid out for you or hinted at. They just never take the thing to it's natural conclusion. It's like hearing the first half of a joke and never hearing the punchline.
The ending is a complete cop out.

I could go on slinging mud at this film. So I will....

There's no motivation for the bad guys. In fact, so loose is the script and so little done to emote with the main characters, and (and I must say it) so bad is Hayden's acting*, that Samuel L Jackson is forced to ham it up to the extreme in order that you know he's the bad guy. If it weren't for this, I probably would have sided with his character during the film. He seems to get confused with his character motivation. At first he's killing jumpers for religious motivations "only god should be in all places at once", however later he admits that he's doing it because jumpers always turn bad. Hayden's character tries to convince him that he's different, but his character has no substance, no depth.

A much better film could have been made by blurring the line between the two sides so the audience doesn't know who's good and who's bad.

Score: D- I'm annoyed with the film, not because it was bad but because it had a lot of potential and threw it away.

OQ: There's no OQ as this film has no memorable lines.

Trivia: The roles of Davey and Millie were originally cast with Tom Sturridge and Teresa Palmer. After 2 months of filming and inflating production costs, Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson were recast as the leads. This really explains a lot.

Eminem turned down an offer to star.

The crew was allowed to film inside the Colosseum for three days under the condition that no equipment could be placed on the ground. Shooting was allowed only between 6.30 and 8.30 am and again at 3.30 pm to 5.30 pm to avoid disturbing tourists. The only lighting allowed was natural sunlight.

*In fact this is another film that features two actors playing the same part, with Hayden playing the older version of the character. And yet again, the younger actor is better. By some margin.