Push Review

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 02.11.2009

Does the latest wannabe "Super Hero Franchise" have the legs to carry it past one film?

Directed by: Paul McGuigan
Written by David Bourla
Cinematography by Peter Sova
Music Composed by Neil Davidge

Cast
Dakota Fanning ... Cassie Holmes
Chris Evans ... Nick Gant
Camilla Belle ... Kira Hudson
Cliff Curtis ... Hook Waters
Ming Na ... Emily Hu
Nate Mooney ... Pinky Stein
Djimon Honsou ... Henry Carver
Neil Jackson ... Victor Budarin
Maggie Stiff ... Teresa Stowe
Haruihko Yamanouchi ... Pop Father
Xiao Lu Li ... Pop Girl
Kwan Fung Chi ... Pop Boy #1
Jacky Heung ... Pop Boy #2




Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, brief strong language, smoking and a scene of teen drinking.

Push is this year’s Jumper. When Fox released Jumper last February, coincidentally on Valentine’s Day weekend, there were high hopes for the possibility of a franchise. Jumper proved to be very raw and underwhelming killing the franchise before it had a chance to get its legs. The biggest problem with that film was its simplicity, giving us a great setup and an interesting idea with the concept of Jumping, but things never got interesting and the effects got old real fast.

Push took the same basic concept, switched out Hayden Christenson for Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson for Djimon Honsou and mixed and matched supernatural effects to try again. When all is said and done, Push is the complete antithesis of Jumper. Where Jumper was simplistic and boring, Push is overly complicated and confusing. While the effects of Jumper left little to the imagination, the powers used in Push presented us with a plethora of options. While Jumper was slick and polished, Push presented us with a dirty, rough look more reminiscent of The Bourne Identity than Jumper.

The film’s back story tells us that the Nazi’s experimented on people with supernatural powers during World War II, trying to develop an army of super soldiers. The powers are classified by name. Pushers are individuals who can control your mind and make you believe whatever they choose. Watchers are people who can see the future, usually through their own drawings. Bleeders can use their screams to destroy just about anything - or anyone. Movers are telekinetics, they can move things with their minds. Sniffers can track people or objects through the sense of smell. Shifters can change the appearance of things. Shadows have the power to block the visions of other clairvoyants. Wipers can erase memories. Stitchers can heal anyone, or vice versa.

I told you the storyline was complicated, but the word that might better describe the situation is convoluted. There is way too much going on in this movie. When I left the theater I was still trying to put together plot strands that had no chance of being resolved due to time constraints. I read Roger Ebert’s interview and could only shake my head because he got quite a few plot points confused and was very hazy about certain aspects of the story. I can empathize because there is too much here for a two hour film.

Nick (Chris Evans) is a pusher. His father was also a pusher and it is clearly shown throughout the film that the supernatural powers are genetically inherited traits passed on through generations. Nick’s dad was a pusher and we see him providing Nick with some predestined information that if Nick helps the girl who gives him a flower, he will save them all, meaning the paranormals. Nick watches as the film’s big baddie Henry Carver (Djimon Honsou), a Pusher orders Nick’s father killed. Unlike Jumper, where the organization Sam Jackson’s character was part of was intent on killing all Jumpers, Carver’s organization, The Division, has more sinister goals. The Division is a U.S. based organization that wants to gather the paranormals and create their own super army.

The Division has developed a serum that will bring the powers of the individual to full power, if it is ever perfected. Unfortunately, there is only one person who has survived this effort and thanks to a Watcher, she has escaped. This is a Pusher named Kira Hudson (Camilla Belle) who sets out for Hong Kong to find Nick, who has been in hiding for over ten years now. Also looking for Nick is Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), a Watcher who has foreseen a future that requires Nick to help her find a mysterious briefcase containing a sample of the serum. The thought process is the briefcase is supposed to help save all the paranormals from The Division, bringing the nefarious organization to the ground. Did I mention the Watcher who helped Kira escape was Cassie’s mother?

Meanwhile, there is a criminal organization in Hong Kong led by a Bleeder called Pop. His sons are Bleeders and his daughter is a Watcher and they want whatever it is that brought The Division to Hong Kong. With all this in place, there is lots of time for cool special effects and crazy supernatural nonsense and let the individuals run wild. Nick and Cassie join up with Kira, as well as three other paranormals (a Sniffer, a Shifter and a Shadow) and they set off to find the case in an attempt to change the grim future Cassie has foreseen.

With that setup, what we get is a disappointment. First of all, the briefcase is a classic MacGuffin. They find it and then set off and - nothing. Once they get it, I still can’t figure out how it is supposed to save the paranormals. The Division was never brought down and the reasons behind finding it are puzzling. Is there supposed to be someone they can take it to that will help them? If there is, I guarantee neither Nick nor Cassie knows who it is. I can think of no discernable reason this item can help any of them. The film could make the excuse the fact that Cassie is a Watcher will lead them to the truth but that is a cop out and was used one too many times already. The moment at the end where Nick figures out how to beat the big baddie was also complete crap that could only be described as Cassie foreseeing it. You can’t use a power like this to provide a deus ex machina or it becomes a cheat. The writer cheated way too much in this story to solve complicated issues. I still don’t know what Carver was really in Hong Kong trying to find, the case or the girl. I don’t think the writer knew either.

That is too bad because the acting was borderline fantastic. Chris Evans continues to be a rock, continuing to impress me since his breakout in Fantastic Four. He exudes a calm cool, but also is a very convincing damaged soul. Every scene he shares with Dakota Fanning is wonderful to watch as the two possess a strong chemistry that carries the movie. Fanning, always thought to be one of the brightest and most talented child actors working has been building a career lately that is helping her break out of the child star mode. Steven Spielberg has always touted her as the brightest child actor he ever worked with and her recent career choices have proven that. She plays a thirteen year old who has grown up way too fast on the streets since her mother was captured and imprisoned by The Division. She delivers a role that at times reminded me of Jodi Foster’s work on Taxi Driver. It’s just too bad these two great performances are not in a movie that even resides in Taxi Driver’s area code.

Another solid performance is Djimon Honsou, who has proven to me here to have a future as a real bad ass. He makes Samuel Jackson’s performance in Jumper look like Mary Poppins. I hate, hate, hate, hate the way they took him out in the picture because a bad guy this cool didn’t need to go out like a bitch. This movie had so much promise that makes the disappointing, confused script that much more criminal.

The direction, took a page out of the Bourne Identity playbook, using a handheld camera in many scenes and keeping the print dirty and grimy. The only time the picture brightened up was in the final big battle where giant bags of colored powder exploded in the air. I don’t know what was in those bags, but it was blue and pink and green and sure did look pretty. It was a case of style over substance. That is the only way to describe the entire movie. It looked pretty and sounded pretty but there was not much brains behind any of the plot twists. The movie looks complicated and over convoluted, nothing in it really made any sense at the end.

The 411: Push is the latest attempt by a studio to create a new franchise. The idea is to take various people with superhuman powers and pit them against each other. It’s kind of like the X-Men, except the powers aren’t unique and everyone is nicely categorized into a group. Once you get your mind wrapped around what each person can do, they are then set out to chase after an object that is supposed to be important but we are never let in on the secret of why they all want it so bad. The action is pretty cool and all the fight scenes are fun but there needs to be more to the script than that. It’s better than last year’s Jumper and the acting is top notch, but what you have here is groups of people chasing an object for no apparent reason. And at one point, some fish get blowed up real good. Gotta give some points for that.

Final Score:  6.5   [ Average ]