SYNOPSIS:
A group of American expatriates with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities hide from a U.S. government agency in Hong Kong. The Divison, a shadowy government agency is genetically transforming citizens into an army of psychic warriors - and brutally disposing those unwilling to participate.
Nick Grant, a second-generation telekinetic or "mover" has been in hiding since the Division murdered his father more than a decade earlier. He has found sanctuary in the densely populated Hong Kong - the last safe place on Earth for fugitive psychics like him - but only if he can keep his gift a secret. Nick is forced out of hiding when Cassie Holmes, a 13-year-old clairvoyant or "watcher" seeks his help in finding Kira, an escaped "pusher" who may hold the key to ending the Division's program. Pushers possess the most dangerous of all psychic powers: the ability to influence others' actions by implanting thoughts in their minds. But Cassie's presence soon attracts the attention of the Division's human bloodhounds forcing Nick and Cassie to flee for their lives. With the help of a team of rogue psychics, the unlikely duo traverses the seedy underbelly of the city trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities as they search for Kira. But they find themselves square in the crosshairs of Divison Agent Henry Carver, a pusher who will stop at nothing to keep them from achieving their goal.
MOVIE REVIEW:
For a start, I shall give credit to "Push" for at
least being an original superhero theme movie without its
sources being adapted from a comic book or toy line though
the rest of this convoluted movie fails to do justice to all
those great ideas that float around.
Shot entirely
in Hong Kong, the movie opens with a mysterious man who is
being chased down by the authorities. Before being killed,
he wanted his young son, Nick to help a girl who is someday
going to give him a flower. The engaging sequence ends with
the Djimon Hounsou character putting on his shades. Flash
forward to years later as we see the Hounsou’s character
again, this time with white beard looking at a girl who looks
like she is suffering from seizure before remarkably escaping
from the facility.
You are
wrong if you think I’m going to regurgitate every single
frame in this review, I’m simply stating how immensely
engaging the prologue is before the plot dragged on and on
in circles with the hapless audience in tow.
Chris
Evans plays the grown up Nick and the now teeny looking Dakota
Fanning as Cassie, a girl who enlist the help of Nick to retrieve
a suitcase which supposedly able to bring down the mysterious
government agency who are bent on capturing people with psychic
abilities for their super soldier experiment. With nicks such
as 'Mover', 'Watcher', 'Stitches' and 'Sniffer', this bunch
of people are amazing to watch given their abilities. You
see two villains with the ability to kill someone just by
screaming their lungs out and the others manage to track one’s
past just by sniffing say the person’s toothbrush.
But
then again, "Push" never develops itself to a full-blown
action superhero flick (X-men?) perhaps constrained by a microscopic
budget nor introducing engaging characters (Heroes?) with
the middle act sag so deeply that it ended up more like an
indie superhero flick filled with some stunning raw cinematography
of Hong Kong skyline and streets to kill the audience’s
time. Personally, I find the fight at the wet market was impressive
overall and the one at the tea house was choreographed pretty
tightly unfortunately the whole issue of the agents tracking
down the syringe is not the least interesting and convincing.
In the end, it left more questions than it originally intended.
Why the US government spent so much money and manpower over
decades for an experiment that fatally killed this group of
people with superpowers? Isn’t it more efficient to
just train and engage them as agents or soldiers?
Like
a kid with a blanket acting as his cape, "Push"
never actually takes off throughout the 106 minutes. The filmmakers
could have benefitted from a watcher’s premonition to
determine its outcome before the commercial release.
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
There is nothing to complain about the disc's
visual transfer though it only comes with a disappointing
Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Posted on 5 August 2009
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