Personally I think the EmDrive or something related to it is going to be what gives us the means to travel to distant systems. Tests from Nasa Eagleworks seem to show that it works to an extent.
Unfortunately, nice as it would be, probably not. Tests have recorded results from the same side of the detector regardless of the orientation of the detector or the drive, and I don't believe there's been a control experiment yet.
On topic about lasers: the nice thing about them is that you keep the heavy thrust generating equipment on Earth, freeing up spacecraft mass for things like more life support or more than a phone booth's volume per person. The downside, of course, being that the thrust equipment stays on Earth, so you still need some amount of on-board thrust for fancy things like "actually landing anywhere."
Another edit: one of the most ridiculous hypothetical propulsion systems I've seen (yes, even more extreme than rocket jumping with nuclear bombs) is a black hole drive. You'd construct a huge array of gamma ray lasers, pointed at a single point. Problem: huge power requirements that could be used on, say, just propelling it with the lasers. Solution (sort of): construct it in low solar orbit and use solar power. The lasers, as light has mass, would eventually create a tiny black hole. Feed it until it is large enough to eat particles, then (somehow) charge it in order to move it. Using a dish to reflect the hawking radiation for thrust, you would feed it with a particle accelerator. Problem: it can't be turned off. Edit: that is, without the black hole evaporating.
