Harkening back to my college days, I remember a girl I was somewhat romantically attracted to, although nothing other than some hanging out together came out of that. While this had nothing to do with that result, one of the more interesting aspects of her was her belief in telekinesis and other such paranormal abilities.
I didn't believe a bit of any of that (although her knowing exactly where I had gone to dinner with friends one night without any "normal" knowledge of that - in an era before cell phones -- was a bit unnerving), but she clearly had her story down, and the universe in which she had created for herself was certainly fascinating. It also served as something of a catalyst for a never-sold screenplay I later wrote about a person with similar abilities.
Granted, that wasn't exactly an original concept -- which is even truer today considering all of the related movies and TV shows that have come and gone since then -- and most such efforts have usually been relegated to the "B" echelon of sci-fi (anyone remember Scott Baio in "Zapped!").
Following in the footsteps of the "X-Men" and "Matrix" movies as well as TV's "Heroes," those responsible for "Push" want to avoid that and thus infuse a lot of action -- as well as a number of name performers -- into the proceedings. Alas, while the concept is intriguing (if obviously not terribly original), it would appear to have worked much better on paper than in final, realized form.
Considering the collection of various personalities with various paranormal powers -- there are movers (telekinesis), watchers (clairvoyants), pushers (telepathic folks), bleeders (ear-piercing screamers), sniffs (think human bloodhounds), shadows (human cloaking devices of sorts), stitchers (healers) -- as well as the government officials who are after them, the pic obviously can't avoid direct comparisons to the "mutants" of "X-Men" and "Heroes" who exist in similar worlds.
Directed by Paul McGuigan from a script by David Boula, the movie starts off with a prologue showing our young protagonist losing his father (one staple of the superhero genre), followed by co-star Dakota Fanning's character delivering a fair amount of exposition during the opening credits concerning the premise.
For reasons not fully explained in terms of plot (beyond the issue of driving home the thematic point of being an outsider), a large contingent of these special folk live in Hong Kong. Our hero (Chris Evans, comfortable in this sort of pic following the "Fantastic Four" films) doesn't want any trouble, but it comes looking for him in various forms. That includes Fanning's insistent watcher (why the uber-talented young actress chose this role is a mystery); Camilla Belle as his former girlfriend, a pusher; and Djimon Hounsou as the lead villain and fellow mind controller, thankfully avoiding the usual histrionics of such a part.
It all revolves around Belle being the only test subject of an experimental serum -- designed to create an even stronger mutant -- to have survived, and she's escaped with that substance. Hounsou's character wants to find her, as do members of some unidentified Asian syndicate, so our reluctant hero assembles a team of others special folks to help them avoid capture and figure out what's going on.
It's more convoluted than necessary, but the array of such people with such powers certainly presents the possibility of some interesting adversarial tactics between the good and bad "guys." While a little creativity with that eventually surfaces toward the end of the third act, it's mostly wasted, especially in regard to those characters who can create false memories and realities in the minds of others.
Yet, even the title abilities (which oddly references those mind controllers rather than the more expected possessors of telekinesis) are squandered by the filmmakers. Sure, various characters are blasted back, up, down and all around, but the action is neutered by haphazard direction and far too many edits courtesy of Nicolas Trembasiewicz back in the cutting room. The result isn't remotely exciting or engaging, and with little novelty in play and few, if any characters to care about, there's no reason to invest much mental, emotional or visceral energy into what unfolds over nearly two hours.
Films, regardless of the genre, should pull the viewer into the proceedings of their world, but "Push" does exactly what its title suggests, thus preventing that from happening. It rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
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