PUSH Blu-ray review

Occasionally attractive to look at, generally incoherent and silly, I wish I could’ve employed psychic abilities to see this one coming.

All too often a screenplay is written that has no right being produced, let alone being produced for tens of millions of dollars. Here is yet another example of a film which consists of beautifully expensive CG and effects, with a screenplay not worth the paper it’s printed on.

STORYTELLING:  

Right, let’s try and do this in a nutshell: The world is full of individuals with varying forms of psychic powers: ‘Watchers’ can see through time, ‘Movers’ can move objects with the power of thought alone, ‘Pushers’ can infect your mind with thoughts not your own, and so on. ‘The Division’ is an international agency trying to hunt down these gifted people in order to turn them into double-hard, arse-kicking soldiers. Nick (Chris Evans) and Cassie (Dakota Fanning) are two such gifted types, and they have scores to settle with Division (a dead father, an incarcerated mother). When they both discover that they’re looking for the same woman to help them resolve their past, they band together, and all sorts of crazy crap pops off (00:18:13).

I wish I could say that what we have here is a breakthrough in the, by now well worn, ‘heroes-with-superpowers-fighting-against-oppressive-shadowy-government-backed-agency’ dramatic milieu, I really do. But I can’t. ‘Push’ is over-complicated and cliché-ridden, littered with implausible gun-pulling stand-offs and tired, recycled characters. Dakota Fanning puts in a good turn, and Chris Evans and the rest of the cast hold their ends up well, although Kwan Fung Chi and Jacky Heung are, to me at least, inadvertently amusing as the banshee-like Pop Brothers – there’s something about their faces as they’re doing their thing that gets me every time (01:21:15).

There are some cool moments, including a ‘drunk’ Fanning trying to enhance her powers with booze, and some nicely staged action sequences, but there are just too many bizarre decisions, too many obscure twists, to make this particular story worthwhile.

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