Opening Day: 5 March 2009

Synopsis:

A riveting action-thriller, "Push" burrows deep into the deadly world of psychic espionage where artificially enhanced paranormal operatives have the ability to move objects with their minds, see the future, create new realities and kill without ever touching their victims. Against this setting, a young man and a teenage girl take on a clandestine agency in a race against time that will determine the future of civilization.

The Division, a shadowy government agency, is genetically transforming citizens into an army of psychic warriors—and brutally disposing of those unwilling to participate. Nick Gant (Chris Evans), 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 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 (Dakota Fanning), a 13-year-old clairvoyant or "watcher," seeks his help in finding Kira, (Camilla Belle), 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 Division Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou), a pusher who will stop at nothing to keep them from achieving their goal.

Movie Review:

“What if nothing we did made sense?” says Nick (Chris Evans), trying to come up with a plan to evade the evil psychics after him and the rest of the good guys. That about says it all for this latest addition into the superhero genre, obviously inspired by a certain television series called Heroes.

As “Push” would have you believe, there are people with super powers in our midst. Nick is a Mover- his is the power of telekinesis. Then there are the Watchers- they can tell the future even as it changes. Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), whom Nick teams up with, is one such superbeing. And there are also the Pushers- they are the most powerful, able to get inside your mind and control your actions. The girl everyone else in the movie is looking for, Kira (Camilla Belle), is a Pusher.

Besides the Movers, Watchers and Pushers, there are also Bleeders, Shifters, Shadows, Wipers, Stitches, and Sniffs. To top it all off, there’s the Division, a secret United States government agency that wants to harness the powers of these superhumans to build up an army of psychic warriors. And oh, there’s something about a cylinder hidden in a locker somewhere that apparently holds the key to bringing down Division.

Not that you will care- as one soon finds out in “Push”, more certainly isn’t always better. Even with the multitude of characters here (probably enough to start a whole TV series), there is very little to hold your attention. And that is because despite the almost 2-hours runtime, writer David Bourla is just content to let the characters do the same things over and over again. So most of the time, all anyone does in the movie seems to be run, hide, fight and repeat.

Indeed, it’s amazing how little story there actually is in “Push”. Nick meets the bad guy, Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) from Division, they fight for a while, Carver decides to let Nick leave, then tries to catch him again. Ditto for Cassie and a fellow Watcher working for a rival triad-like organisation that is similarly trying to get their hands on Kira and the cylinder. They meet, she threatens her, lets her go, then tries to track her down again. And this goes on and on interminably, interspersed with equally unexciting back stories, until a most unsatisfying conclusion that shockingly leaves the door open for a sequel.

It seems director Paul McGuigan was just as bored trying to make sense of this hopelessly meandering story. He uses visual effects aplenty to try to keep you interested but the intermittently stylish visuals can only go so far to distract you from the fact that this has some style but absolutely no substance. To his credit though, “Push” has vibrant cinematography thanks to Peter Sova who captures Hong Kong in full glory of its bustle by day and flashing neon lights by night.

Aside from its exotic Hong Kong location setting, “Push” is also supposedly to be notable for Dakota Fanning’s teenage girl performance. But there’s really nothing here to offer for the actress who has demonstrated great potential as a child star. Instead, “Push” only calls for her to be a precocious clairvoyant wearing a dangerously short miniskirt and sporting purple streaks in her hair.

In its opening vignette, Dakota Fanning’s Cassie Holmes explains: “There are special people in this world. We don’t ask to be special. We are just born this way.” There are also special movies in this world- those that are especially good and those that are especially bad. Unfortunately, this belongs to the latter. And no, it wasn’t born like this...It was made that way.

Movie Rating:



(You don’t have to be a psychic to Push this away)

Review by Gabriel Chong