And speaking of rap music, IMDB asserts that Eminem was offered the leading role and turned it down. Instead, Christensen (of Star Wars fame) plays David Rice, a young man who has the ability to "jump" or teleport to any location in the world that he can picture in his mind. Soon he meets up with another jumper and a group of hunters who are set to destroy all those who can jump.

Sadly, "Jumper" made me wish that I had the power to teleport out of the theater. Samuel L. Jackson portrays Roland, the antagonist and leader of the "Paladins." They are a secret sect of holy warriors whose descendants have all hunted jumpers. Jackson's character is reminiscent to his Jules character from "Pulp Fiction."  Prior to killing captured jumpers, he preaches about how only God should have the power to be in all places at all times. The difference between Jules and
Roland is that Jules had some substance.

With a quick look at the trailer, you can determine that "Jumper" is supposed to be an action movie, but unfortunately nothing was saved for the movie. If you're planning to go to see the cool action sequences, just rewind the trailer a few times and save your popcorn money. The full action sequences are nothing but the special effects department navel gazing at the neat things they can do. Without any characters to back up the effects, why bother? After the first 20 minutes, we get it. The dude can teleport, now give us a plot to follow while he's teleporting all over the place.

The plot has so many holes that the movie should be called "Jumper: Swiss Cheese Edition," emphasis on the cheese. The whole premise is built on the fact that David is separated from the other jumpers and assumes that he's the only one who exists. Yet he uses the same terms that they do to describe what he does.

When Roland catches up to him, he calls pictures of places that David jumps to "jump-points" and later in the film, David references the same term. How would Roland and David be using the same jargon? Worst of all, the Paladins are supposed to be this elite group of jumper bounty hunters, but we only see Samuel L. Jackson leading a maximum of 10 cronies around to attack the jumpers. Where's the big government facility? Where are the helicopters? C'mon Hollywood. We know Jackson is a bad ass, but how can the jumpers be so afraid of one guy? There aren't even snakes involved. Or planes.

Christensen's acting skills have not gotten any better since the Star Wars prequels. He has no facial expressions or variance in tone to his voice. While that works in weird roles like the one he played in "Shattered Glass," this movie was not for him. Even his interaction with love interest Rachel Bilson (The O.C) is wooden.

There was one surprise in the cast, Diane Lane plays David's estranged mother. She shows up for about one whole minute of screen time, but leaves the story-line ripe for a sequel. The problem is that the writers didn't define the story well enough for the first movie. How can they expect to have an audience for a second?

With Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rooker, and Diane Lane, I expected more substance. It's not that the subject isn't interesting it's that they dropped the ball with something that could have easily been as big as X-Men or the Matrix trilogy.

"Jumper" is rated PG-13 and is playing at Regal Movieland 7 and Regal Lancaster Mall 11.