Jumper (Doug Liman, 2008)

Jumper is a cool concept that never got developed past the idea stage. The ability to transport, to ‘jump’ from place to place simply by thinking about it is a clever origin for a story, but I feel like somewhere along the line (whether it was the writers, the producers or the director himself) someone fell in love with the act of doing it more than having to account for it. Which basically means that we get to see upwards of a thousand teleports (dude even teleports from one side of the couch to the other just to get the remote control), without once seeing a coherent plotline. Instead we get a weak backstory/love interest and some ludicrous war between Jumpers and an apparently Jumper-racist Samuel L. Jackson (evidently back to picking up paychecks for having strange haircuts and appearing menacing after a couple fine performances in 2007 in 1408 and Black Snake Moan). Worse yet, Hayden Christensen is cast in the lead and somehow fails to register a solitary emotion within 90 minutes of screen time. With such films as The Bourne Identity and Swingers behind him, the usually reliable director Doug Liman should have known better. This is the bomb that everyone thought Mr. & Mrs. Smith was.