I like Doug Liman. I really do. Go was fun, I still think The Bourne Identity is the best of the trilogy (though that can be credited largely to Franka Potente and Clive Owen), and I enjoyed Mr. and Mrs. Smith a lot. Yes, a lot. It might have been because I saw it in the ideal setting, with a big group of people, most of them rowdy girls, but I still think it holds up as a fun, light, action-comedy-romance. And the story? What story? It makes no sense, I know, the end especially is entirely ludicrous, but I didn’t care.
But now, with Jumper, I have to admit I’m getting a little worried. Not so much by Jumper itself, which manages to be quite entertaining despite an even more absent/lame story and a hollow performance by Darth Vader Jr, and at just 88 minutes it doesn’t outstay its welcome. It’s just that it’s now impossible not to see a trend: every new Doug Liman has less substance than the last. And a movie with less substance than Jumper is something I shudder to behold. He’s supposedly working on a Valerie Plame movie with Nicole Kidman, but that might just be a maneuver to distract us from the wonder of vapidness he’s really working on.
Luckily, Jumper has a redeeming feature, and it’s not the cool shots of the Sphinx. Nope, it’s Jamie Bell, who absolutey steals the show, and is easily ten times as interesting as the main character. Who’d have thought the little ballet dancer boy would turn out to be so sexy (see Glenn’s blog if you don’t believe me), but even dangerous-sexy and funny and well, full of life. Which alas, dear Anakin is not. Rachel Bilson, who’s as adorable and perky as anyone can be, tries her hardest and sends plenty of sparks in his direction, but he seems utterly incapable of sparking back.
The ending of the movie, of course, leaves plenty of space for a sequel. The movie’s basically a pilot episode of a very pricey TV show. So if there has to be a sequel, can I make one small request? Dump the dull one. And gimme more of that Griffin kid.
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For those of you who read Dutch, a more conventional review can be found here.
