Review: Push (2009)

You know there’s trouble brewing when a voiceover during the opening credits tells the entire backstory of the film. I understand the conceit; the information is vital in establishing the setup and the characters, while creating a context for all future events. While occasionally informative and exciting (see The Kingdom‘s opening credit sequence), this method of exposition usually masks problems that are inherent in the story. Such is the case with Push, a science-fiction superhero film that is embarrassing and amateurish. The basic premise is that there are people in the world who hold extraordinary telekinetic and psychic powers, and they are pursued by a sinister government agency intent on turning them into super soldiers for the military. Don’t be surprised if the premise sounds overly familiar. This is what’s been happening every week on the NBC’s Heroes for the past three seasons (minus the super-soldiers thing, but wasn’t that an X-Files plot?). There are people who each wield a different power, such as Pushers, Movers, Sniffers, Watchers, Shadows, Scrunts and Narfs. Ok, those last two were from Lady in the Water, but you get the point. Push ultimately has a lot of similarities with Heroes and Lady in the Water in that they don’t explain the rules of the world they’ve created. Characters like Nick (Chris Evans), who has the power to move objects with his mind, and Cassie (Dakota Fanning, looking like a certifiable crack addict), who can see into the future, spend the entire film running away from federal agents lead by government baddie Carver (Djimon Hounsou), when if they stopped and used the powers given to them, the movie would end in 10 minutes. Of course, there are all sorts of caveats that are thrown into the mix in order to stretch the storyline into a proper feature-length runtime. For example, one character, Kira (Camilla Belle), has the power to push thoughts into other people’s heads. Why then does she not meet her captors and tell them to stop chasing her? Why, because the movie would be over if she did. Fine, I get it, but what’s most insulting is that is exactly what she does near the end of the film. She just pushes thoughts onto other characters and makes them do things they don’t want to. The question I have to ask myself now is this: why did I waste my time with this story and these characters if they’re going to treat me like an idiot?

Story problems aside, Push had potential to be a brainless popcorn action movie. Unfortunately, this fails spectacularly. Action is not something Push director Paul McGuigan wants to do. What he wants is characters sitting in a room, waiting for something to happen. Or driving to a location and thinking. All the while light indie rock plays over the soundtrack. Is this the WB or the multiplex? Chris Evans was great in Danny Boyle’s science-fiction epic, Sunshine, but here, he does nothing. His character is so passive and uninterested, he blends into the background. Evans appears to be just as bored as I was. His character is given a tragic past involving the death of his father but the script gives him nothing beyond that. He is always waiting to do something. When he finally acts, it is too late. His actions have no meaning because by the time he finally chooses to do something, we’ve lost the will to care about him or his situation. All in all, a disappointing film that would have been less insulting if it had been a straight-to-DVD release.

Richard Saad
© Cinephile Magazine, 2009