I was excited to see Push, probably because we had been without an effects driven film since The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and not even that really counts in comparison. Hancock or Hellboy 2 are probably better comparisons, and that was way back in July 2008. So I was feeling up to checking out Push and I had already prepped myself for a visual effects film working on a small budget, so a lot of leeway was assumed to be needed. As it turns out the effects are just fine, it’s the story that hurts it as Push has so many plot and logic problems you can’t get passed them no matter how hard you try, especially since one of them is the driving force of the story.
Push is set in the real world, except operating in this world is a group called Division which has been tracking down and trying to perfect the more unique members of society. By unique I mean these people can move things with their minds, put thoughts in your head, smell things really well, see the future and some can even scream really, really loud. They are given names like Movers, Pushers, Sniffers, Watchers, etc. It sounds a little silly, but you can see where it would become necessary. Imagine if you wanted to summon a Sniffer and instead had to say, “Hey, get me one of those guys that smells really good.” So many problems could arise as a result of that statement and I am not about to get into them here. So, suffice to say, Sniffer works much better.
Division is trying to turn these unique individuals into an army with the design of taking over the world. Mu hu ha ha haaaaaa! Djimon Hounsou plays a Division agent at the head of it all and his prized patient, played by Camilla Belle (10,000 B.C.) has just escaped with the last of the enhancement serum after becoming the first patient to survive its effects. She ultimately teams up with Dakota Fanning (a Watcher) and Chris Evans (a Mover) with the goal of finding a super secret case that contains the of the enhancement serum which she hid somewhere before having her memory wiped so Division couldn’t find it. However, they aren’t the only ones looking for it as a rogue group of uniques hell bent on taking down Division and, I assume, also wanting to rule the world is also after the same case.
What Push boils down to is a lot of people seeing the future, sniffing, pushing, moving and yelling their way around town to find an enhancement drug that for some unknown reason was never duplicated, stored and kept in a secure lab in the first place. And therein lies the problem with this picture. The filmmakers go throw hell trying to explain what powers people have, how they are used and what they are called, but they do it all and forget the simple things. For example, if you want a guy dead and you can put the thought of suicide in his head… Why hesitate? This is a film that solves its own problems while making a whole batch more at the same time.
The one thing I really did like about the film was Dakota Fanning and the story’s use of her and her character. Fanning plays a 13-year-old girl and was 14 when the film was shot, an age in Hollywood where an actress is no longer considered a child actor and hasn’t hit the age where she is being chased by paparazzi. It’s an awkward age for us all and the film reflects it perfectly with Fanning dealing with coming into her teens as well as her character’s detachment from her mother. She throws occasional fits and even rebels one night and gets drunk. It all fits and it makes for a very well designed character and helps ease the audience into Fanning’s life after Charlotte’s Web. It was a pleasure to see.
Chris Evans was also his usual self as I believe he is still in need of a breakout role somewhere in his near future where it will either be decided he is going to be stuck doing teen actioners his whole life or if he actually has the talent I believe he has. As much as Fanning has to work to make her teen years work for her career, Evans needs to get out of the wife-beater Creatine stage and decide if he wants to be an actor or a Calvin Klein model. Hounsou as the menacing bald man is hardly worth a mention as the role is a throw away and Camilla Belle is still yet to truly impress me even though she does nothing to hurt or help this picture.
Director Paul McGuigan did all he could with the limited budget using camera effects, flashy editing and a few effects here and there to make this film seem like it was bigger than it really is, but in the end it is all for naught. While the idea of people out there with extraordinary powers is interesting, introducing them to us and then having us watch them try and battle an already established league of bad guys is all-to-familiar and loses its appeal rather quickly especially when the details of the story leave it wide open for so much scrutiny.
You can tell Summit fully envisions a follow-up film based on the open ending and considering it is a small budget feature a decent box-office return would likely make that a possibility, but I wouldn’t expect this one to go too far after opening weekend. It just doesn’t have “it”.
