I figured Jumper was going to be a crappy movie, I just didn't know how crappy. What do you do with a book that has a Muslim terrorists as a bad guy? Well you turn the book around, make it anti-Catholic, which was a big surprise to me, and you make the Muslims the good guys.
AH! But these illuminati are the Magisterium! They are the Opus Dei! The Christians are the bad guys. Their motive for killing teleporters is that "Old God should Have the Power to Be in All Places At Once". Boy, that is so stupid it makes my head ache. Teleporters go from place to place, they are not in all places at once, and God does not teleport.
These guys are not Jews or even Evil Buddhists. They are called Paladins— the band of knights in service to Charlemagne who saved Europe from the Muslim hordes of Spain and North Africa are just the people the film makers thought it would be creepy to name their bad guys after. They are the same people (according to one character in the film) who were responsible for the Inquisition (of course that is a fabrication too).
Good thing you did not have the Muslim terrorist in the book as the villain, or that might have offended someone.
So with films like the Da Vinci Code, Golden Compass, and now Jumper it looks like Catholics are now the villains of choice and for Hollywood the Chosen people. It reminds me of the great line in Fiddler on the Roof "We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else?"
Did I like the movie? No. Clearly not. And honestly while the special effects of the 'jumps' are pretty awesome, if you see the TV commercials, then you've seen the best parts of the movie.
