A young man (Hayden Christiansen) discovers he can teleport through space to any destination of his choosing, making world travel and bank robbery a snap. But some cop-like figures known as paladins don't care for so-called jumpers, and soon Mr. Jet Set has the worse sort of menace on his tail: Samuel L. Jackson, who plays a particularly aggressive paladin. While Jumper is entertaining in a dumb comic-book fashion -- and who wouldn't want to zip around the globe at will, even vicariously? -- it fails to fill in too many holes: Who and why are jumpers? How many are there? Why exactly are they pursued? And these paladins are who? If this is really is an eternal battle as stated, then tell us more. Instead, we get the last resort of plot development, a boring romantic subplot. Director Doug Liman has done zippy action before -- Go, The Bourne Identity -- so chalk this venture up to a misstep and jump away. Starts Thu., Feb. 14. (AH) [capsule review]
