There’s one thing, however, that sticks in my craw: both of these movies were obviously made with the intention of generating a franchise. “Spiderwick” is children’s fantasy, and studios are still hoping they can recreate the magic of “Harry Potter” in spite of the failures that were “Eragon” and “Series of Unfortunate Events.” “Jumper” is a sci-fi action epic that imagines a world populated by copies of Nightcrawler from “X2″ (I haven’t checked, but it looks like they used the same effects studio). In theory, both of these should be smash hits, however “Jumper” pulled in a respectable $30 million while “Spiderwick” could only manage around $19 million. There’s a lot to be said about not doubling up on big budget films whose audiences cross over in the same weekend, but I’m not going there. I’m frankly annoyed that for the last 20 minutes of “Jumper,” I became acutely aware that nothing was getting resolved and that I would have to see two more movies to learn the final fates of these characters. Does anyone remember “Star Wars: A New Hope,” which began a fantastic trilogy, but also works as a self-contained movie? Each “Indiana Jones” film works on its own. More recently there was “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” which works as one complete movie. “Spiderwick” also utilizes this model, where it delivers one complete, self-contained story and leaves open the possibility of sequels, should they decide to make them. “Jumper” works from the opposite perspective and functions as a trailer for the (hopefully) following films. Look, it was one thing when they did that with “Lord of the Rings,” which had the advantage of 40 years of fan-following and nerd buzz to generate interest and tells a story that cannot be told in one film, but the Jumper vs Paladin war seemed like something that could be fixed pretty fast. The result? If they decide to make a “Jumper 2,” I’ll probably just wait for the DVD and hope I don’t get fooled again.
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This weekend I had the dual pleasure of seeing “The Spiderwick Chronicles” and “Jumper,” both film experiences which I felt were worth my nine bucks. “Spiderwick” was fun and entertaining, though at times predictable, but an over-all positive experience. I didn’t read the book before seeing this one, so I can’t speak to its faithfulness to the original material. In spite of the abysmal reviews, I also enjoyed “Jumper.” Liman never lets the camera rest on anyone for too long, which I think is a compliment to Christenson, who’s still mastering the art of “emoting.” Otherwise, I saw a kid teleport a bus, effectively throwing it at Sam Jackson, so I wasn’t unhappy. 
