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What’s your favorite superpower? My personal favorite
is the ability to fly, although x-ray vision and incredible
strength are also pretty cool. So are mental powers, namely
being able to read people’s minds and see into the future.
“Push” is a movie that views mental abilities as a curse
instead of a blessing, essentially turning the idea of possessing
a superpower upside down. ***
While this doesn’t make for a particularly good film,
it does allow for the viewer to stay somewhat interested
all throughout. I say “somewhat” because the story is often
times confusing and ultimately unsatisfying; the filmmakers
were obviously more interested in developing the neat visuals
and convoluted twists more than the characters or the overarching
plot. I won’t go so far as to say this is a bad film, but
it definitely isn’t everything it could have been. ***
The film opens with a voiceover narration provided
by teenager Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning). She explains
that governments have been keeping watch on people with
extra-sensory abilities since 1945. There are several ability
categories. Movers can manipulate inanimate objects mentally.
Pushers can project (or push) memories, thoughts, or emotions
into other people’s minds. Watchers can see visions of the
future. Wipers can temporarily or permanently erase memories.
***
There are also Bleeders, Sniffers, Shifters, Shadows,
and Stitchers, although I won’t get into them all. Anyway,
a prologue sequence shows a man and his young son, both
Movers, trying to escape a hotel from an evil government
faction known as Division. They, of course, want to capture
people with special abilities and perform experiments on
them. ***
The story proper begins ten years later in Hong Kong,
where we meet Nick Gant (Chris Evans), a Mover in hiding,
having narrowly escaped being captured by Division as a
boy. From out of the blue comes Cassie, who, for reasons
I simply couldn’t believe, managed to fly to Hong Kong and
find Nick completely on her own. She’s a Watcher, and she
claims that she and Nick will find a special suitcase containing
$6 million. Nick has no idea what she’s talking about and
refuses to help her. ***
Then they go through a frenetic chase sequence, at which
point Nick remembers something his long-since-dead father
told him about a vision he was given by a Watcher. I won’t
reveal it, but needless to say, Nick now knows he has no
choice--he must help Cassie. Unfortunately, she has some
bad news: She has had a vision that both she and Nick will
die. ***
What exactly is this building towards? Let’s consider
the case of a Pusher named Kira (Camilla Bell); while in
Division’s clutches, she’s the subject of an experiment
no one else has survived, one involving an injectable serum
supposedly meant to augment her powers. ***
Through a series of very unlikely circumstance, she
manages to escape, taking with her a suitcase containing
a syringe filled with the serum. Now Division has sent a
merciless agent named Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) to retrieve
her and the suitcase. He know that Nick and Cassie are somehow
involved, which is why he’s after them too. So again, what
exactly is this building up to? I leave it to you to find
out, although I’m hard pressed to say you’ll be happy once
the film is over. ***
While “Push” achieves much on level of set design and
special effects, it simply doesn’t have the story power
necessary to stay afloat. As far as the story goes, all
it really has to fall back on are a series of clever surprises,
each more twisted than the last. This can be overbearing
at a certain point, especially in conjunction with a story
that was complex to begin with. ***
Moments of comedy relief, which are blessedly few, don’t
help much. There are scenes, for example, featuring a Shadow
named “Pinky” Stein (Nate Mooney), your typical smart aleck.
One of the least appealing scenes in this film is of Cassie
getting drunk. Apparently, she believes that liquoring herself
up will boost her powers. If this was intended to be a humorous
moment, something when horribly wrong; in the context of
a science fiction thriller, a drunken teenage girl just
isn’t funny. ***
This movie could have been so much better if only it
hadn’t been so hard to follow; maybe I’m just dull, but
I see no reason why this couldn’t have been a simple story
about simple characters doing amazing things. The idea behind
“Push” is that it’s “a new evolution of hero,” and I’m all
for that; not every hero has to be a goody two shoes who
spends all his time thwarting criminal masterminds in major
cities. But this movie tries for more than it can deliver,
not only in terms of the whole mental-superpowers gimmick,
but also in terms of its story, which is far too ambitious
for its own good. ***
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