watching movies one cup at a time

Anakin Skywalker and Mace Windu, together again. In this flick Hayden Christensen plays a David Rice, a guy who is a “jumper,” meaning he can jump from one physical location to another just by thinking it. So of course he uses the power to score chicks, steal money, and brag about how many places he went to in one morning (bragging to no one in particular I might add). Well turns out there are many jumpers and Samuel L. Jackson leads a group called the “Paladins” who’s job it is to kill jumpers. Why? They say only God should have this power. And somehow they are empowered by God to kill these kids? I don’t buy it. They don’t sell the concept enough in the movie to make it seem logical. This movie is based on a series of books and maybe the books go into it more. But on it’s own, the movie is paper thin.  We get tiny, tiny glimpses into a deeper conflict but this movie is totally content to keep everything at surface level. I suppose that way they can have more cool shots of teleporting fancy cars and popping up on top of the Sphinx every 20 minutes.

David gets his first taste of the Paladins and decides to reconnect with his junior high school sweetheart. She gets caught up in the battle of course and exists pretty much to get tossed around like a piece of jewelry. Gotta have a love interest. Even if she gets really annoying really fast by saying “David! What’s really going on!?” about 100 times.

The acting was okay. Hayden Christensen is not a very good actor. I felt like I was watching Anakin Skywalker the whole time. I expected his girlfriend to say “Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo.” Pretty stiff and the same exasperated whimper like he had in the Star Wars movies. Samuel L. Jackson effortlessly delivers his typical badass with the usual high standard. Even in a mediocre movie, just having him in the scene takes it up a few notches.

The effects work pretty well. The jumping looked convincing and they used it in very intricate ways, way beyond just the usual here -to-there jumping. Doug Liman, the director of the first two Jason Bourne movies, directed this one and he’s got a good feel for directing action.

Overall, I just didn’t get super excited about this one but it wasn’t bad either. It had some interesting moments, I just wish there had been less silly love story and “What’s really going on?” moments and they had instead dug deeper into why the Paladins after David and the jumpers. The film just kind of ends on a whimper and it’s clearly aimed toward a sequel. I’ve heard one is going to start soon and I hope they get more into some deeper story in that one.