I have been making the case for Doug Liman for years now. I’d even recently given up the claim that I completely despise Swingers (it’s mostly the neo-swing soundtrack I hate). I constantly argued that his The Bourne Identity was better than Greengrass’ The Bourne Supremacy — in the end Greengrass’ The Bourne Ultimatum turned out ultimately the best — and still continue promoting the genius of Mr. and Mrs. Smith (I watched it with a newbie just the other night, and that person was convinced). But now, I am on the fence about Jumper, which I haven’t yet seen and which arrived in theaters today. I can’t decide whether to bother seeing it.

The movie certainly looks stupid. I’ll admit it. Yet this is where my Liman defending came about in the past year, especially recently, as its release got closer. Every time the trailer or TV ad came on the screen, someone would turn to me and say it looks really stupid. Or I would overhear a similar statement coming from the mouths of strangers. Oh, it has to be better than it looks, I would say. It’s Doug Liman, a great action director who tackles seemingly stupid movies. But now the reviews are out. It has an 18% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I can’t find one trustworthy critic who offers good enough reason to see it.

Meanwhile, I’m hoping that Jumper, if actually terrible, could simply be a fluke and I can get back in the game of supporting Liman with his next one (he’s just been slated to direct Nicole Kidman as real-life CIA Agent Victoria Plame). However, aside from the fact that he has his next project lined up, if Jumper is a bomb and if he maintains his bad reputation of being difficult to work with, then less and less of Hollywood is likely to give him a next one. Yesterday, Anne Thompson wrote about the problem of Doug Liman, and seems to agree with me as both a defender of his work and a worrier about his future:

The thing is, his movies are fun to watch partly because they keep surprising you. Given the free-spending insanity that is already a given on big-budget Hollywood movies, why not indulge a filmmaker who makes the movies a little less polished, predictable and formulaic? Both Bourne and Mr. and Mrs. Smith actually stand up to repeated viewings.

On the other hand if Liman’s out-of-control, kid-in-the-playpen rep keeps dogging him, I’ll be curious to see who will keep hiring him. Finally, as long as the movies keep working, he’ll have no shortage of offers.

I guess we’ll have to see if Jumper works, then. It is an odd sort of film to open on Valentine’s Day (perhaps its demo is the dateless sci-fi geek?), so I’m not placing any bets on it taking the weekend. And if I do end up seeing it, and liking it, I’ll be sure to lay out my defense as soon as I can.