WTF: 'Campus Life' Trailer Featuring Martin Scorsese And Ray Liotta

Under most circumstances, a Martin Scorsese / Ray Liotta reunion would be cause for celebration. In the case of Campus Life, however, their team-up is more puzzling than enticing.

Jesse McCartney leads the cast of the indie thriller, about a group of college kids trying to uncover a supernatural secret. But based on the trailer, the bigger question may be what Scorsese and Liotta are doing in this seemingly low-rent Chronicle imitation. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

Whatever their reasoning, Scorsese and Liotta are far and away the most recognizable talents in the film, so of course they're being used to sell it. Their less famous co-stars include McCartney, Hannah Hodson, Alice Kremelberg, Conor Leslie, and Ritesh Rajan. Kenneth M. Waddell directs.

The premise has some potential to it, I guess, but the execution looks amateurish. The effects look fake, the dialogue is stilted, and the entire universe looks utterly generic. The next X-Men, this isn't.

Aside from Scorsese and Liotta, the most interesting thing about Campus Life is its origin. It's the first original feature from JumpView, a new platform that lets viewers choose how they watch a particular film or TV series. Users first watch a scene, then jump back and forth through the story depending on which (main) character they feel like following.

Theoretically, JumpView gives people greater control over the movie-watching process, allowing them to focus on the characters and scenes that interest them most. I think it sounds like an unwieldy way to watch a movie — particularly ones that were conceived as traditional, chronologically ordered narratives — but I haven't tried it myself so I can't say for certain.

If you'd like to test it out, or if you're interested in seeing the rest of Campus Life, click over to JumpView to learn more.