By Ryan Parsons | Image property of 20th Century Fox.
Jumper
I was dreading this. The two dark horse action films that I'm geeked on for 2008 are Jumper and Wanted. Some early buzz surfaced last week claiming that Jumper was no bueno, but I figured I'd dismiss it until something more official came along.
The first official reviews for have surfaced for Jumper and, like I feared, they aren't pretty.
Jumper Reviews
For those of you still excited about Jumper, I guess I'm at least doing you a service. The two reviews below are both negative, so they should do a fine job lowering the expectations you have of this movie. Too bad, as the premise was absolutely badass.
Hollywood Reporter
But for a picture steeped in wormholes and zippy trips via the space-time continuum, "Jumper" proves disappointingly inert.
All the state-of-the-art visual effects in the world can't compensate for spotty plotting and bland characters that prevent an intriguing premise from going the distance.
Given the director's proven track record and nifty-looking teaser trailers, the 20th Century-Fox release should come out of the gate running, but more discerning movie-goers may opt to look before they leap, resulting in returns that would fall short of the usual Liman mark.
AOL
Not in 'Jumper,' which is all concept and zero substance.
But special effects alone aren't enough, and the climactic showdown between Christensen and Jackson — Anakin Skywalker vs. Mace Windu, for all you 'Star Wars' geeks — feels ridiculously overblown.
Ultimately, the movie just ends in an abrupt, unsatisfying fashion. But then again, the whole thing feels truncated — giant chunks of context are missing, as if they jumped past those during the editing process. Diane Lane shows up in a couple of scenes as the mother who abandoned David when he was 5, and their reunion is over so quickly, it's not just devoid of poignancy, it's laughable.
'Jumper' had potential, though. It's got a clever premise. And at its best, in the beginning, it almost feels like the pilot for a prime-time series you'd like to see more of. But now we're jumping ahead of ourselves.
Check out both reviews for Jumper by clicking the bold links above.
Jumper opens to theaters on February 15th.
For the trailers, posters, clips, stills and more info on the film, go to the Jumper Movie Page.
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