In "Jumper," a young man (Hayden Christensen) discovers he can teleport himself anywhere he wants. But when he starts abusing his power to rob banks and enjoy high living, he quickly finds himself hunted by a ruthless paladin (Samuel L. Jackson), an agent who kills ‘jumpers' for a living. Sound exciting? It sure does. The trailers for the film looked stunning, and the inventive premise had many fans excited about the release. And who could be a better director for this than Doug Liman?

What could possibly go wrong? A whole lot, actually. Just because the main characters can jump anywhere they desire does not mean audiences are willing to jump past all of the script's weaknesses. When word about the film first got out, everybody thought Liman was just the right guy for this concept. After all, he also directed "The Bourne Identity" and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." In the end, he unfortunately cares more about dazzling special effects than cohesive screenwriting.

Just because the main characters can jump anywhere they desire does not mean audiences are willing to jump past all of the script's weaknesses.

Massive plot holes are the movie's biggest flaw. While the audience learns a lot about how the main protagonist discovers his power, other crucial aspects are never explained. We never learn who Jackson's character really is and how he got to tracking down jumpers. We know he's a so-called ‘paladin,' but we never find out how and why their war against jumpers really started. In many ways, everything in "Jumper" feels rushed and incomplete.

This approach has only one benefit, which becomes the film's greatest asset: it boosts the pace of the plot, delivers constant action and completely avoids boredom. A downside is that everything happens so fast that by the time the movie is over, we are left wondering: is this it? Where's the big showdown? That final jump was not at all spectacular.

The actors try their best to inject some energy into their generic characters, but the script prevents them from doing so. Chemistry between Christensen and Rachel Bilson is non-existent, and the romance between the two is painfully implausible. Jackson looks ridiculous with his white hair and tough attitude, and his performance resembles that in "XXX: State of the Union." Nobody cares about his character anyway. The only acting honors in the film go to Jamie Bell.  

Expectations for "Jumper" were high, but the end result failed to live up to them. The concept is interesting but never developed enough, and if handled with a little more care, the jump would have been twice as impressive. "Jumper" is a decent action flick as far as the pacing is concerned, but that's hardly enough to please us these days.   

Grade: C