Is 'Jumper' an overture to something better?

Hayden Christensen (Shattered Glass, Star Wars Episode II & III, Awake) plays David Rice, a young man who discovers he has the power to teleport after falling through a frozen lake. Later, he discovers that he's not the only one with this gift and that he's part of a centuries-old war between those like him, and those who've sworn to kill those like him.

Roland (Samuel L. Jackson, Star Wars Episode II & III) is one of those, who for reason we don't know, working to exterminate the jumpers. Jackson plays the part the same way he does every other villian he's been cast as: arrogantly. Dian Lane (Untraceable) has a small role as Rice's long-lost mother, but we figure out later that she's more a part of the story than we're initially lead to believe.

Christensen as a jet-set teleporter does manage to entertain throughout, but he's not given much to work with. Overall, the story really fails to deliver on the potential of such a high concept. Maybe it's because the writers chose to take the film to such a dark place (a war between jumpers and a mysterious jumper-hating, pseudo-religious cult) without giving us much reason to like the jumpers or even care if their existence is threatened.

We meet just two jumpers in the film (though we see a third killed by Jackson's character) and they're both overtly selfish and largely unlikeable: Think X-men gone bank robbers living in beautiful Manhattan penthouses with more money than most of make in years. Or Superman if he used his flying powers to go surfing in the South Pacific in the morning and cruising singles bars in England in the evening.

That's what you get with Jumper. Who wants to see that?

Still, I'm cautious with the judgment. Christensen's character does manage to elicit some sympathy, but only in the rare instances when he turns his focus and his goals towards other and away from himself. The special effects, as expected, are fun to watch. And like I said, this movie felt more like an overture than a film, a set-up for something better to come. I just hope it comes soon.