Push
Action films get a bad rep for being blue collar boom fests with nary an intelligent thought or idea to be found in the greased up testosterone fuelled protagonist, and if the conscious director wants to remedy this predilection, their first instinct always seems to be to thicken the story with pseudo sciences and psychology. The thought being that if you can confuse the audience, you can claim intellectual victory. Never has this thought been quite so aptly demonstrated until Push, a movie that tears vital organs from other better science fiction franchises in order to create a Frankenstein monster of questionable legitimacy.
Back in 1945, the Nazis began tinkering with ways to weaponize people with unique psychic powers through various drugs in an effort to build an unstoppable army of dubious loyalty (is there anything they can?t do?). World War II ended, but all the major governments of the world decided to keep working on their psychic weapons, eventually dedicating facilities and agencies to the project. In the present day, psychics are trained and categorized through Division, an agency that either recruits psychics or uses them as guinea pigs, largely depending on what kind of mood their in. Psychics that don?t comply live on the run, usually in Hong Kong or other similar densely populated foreign cities that make for captivating cinematography to the western eye (see: The Incredible Hulk [2008]).
Frequent readers of mine know that I like to spend as little time as possible on the story in order to move on to the more interesting strengths and weaknesses of the film, so understand that dedicating two paragraphs to synopsis shows just how convoluted this movie is. Psychic weapons are classified as Movers, Pushers, Bleeders, Stitchers, Watchers, staplers, etc. based on ability. Movers can telekinetically manipulate the world around them, Pushers can insert thoughts and emotions into their quarrel, Watchers see the future, and so on. Bearing this in mind, try and wrap your head around this: Push follows a Mover (Chris Evans) and a Watcher (Dakota Fanning) as they evade capture from American Division Sniffs and Pushers, as well as the Chinese Psychic Mafia. Along the way, they make the acquaintance of a Pusher (Camilla Belle) who recently escaped a Division testing lab, and it?s this mysterious Pusher that has everyone all edgy and trigger happy.
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In all fairness, it?s actually a pretty good premise. If you?re willing to look past the fact that Division is essentially a multi-million dollar pet project with absolutely no purpose for existing, the fact that no government would ever invest in such a ludicrous army of fickle fidelity, and the fact that the film shamelessly distorts the established time context before anyone can even raise a question of continuity, you might find yourself being entertained. Yet being ignorant to these flaws likely isn?t going to be enough. I watched the film rather studiously, and I still had absolutely no idea what the fuck was going on. Unless you had a hand in the scripting and screenplay, you?re probably going to feel the same way.
Nobody watches a film about warring psychics in Hong Kong for the story though. High pitched stunningly choreographed fight scenes are the real selling point, and unfortunately, there aren?t nearly enough of them. For sake of comparison, Taken [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.86708] was a ninety minute film with a solid seventy minutes of action. Push on the other hand is twenty minutes longer with half as much time spent toying with psychic badassery. It?s hard to find silver linings when you walk out confused and dissatisfied. At the same time, the cinematography is splendid. Striking camerawork and a great colour palette amplify the criminally few times people get their guns out.
So what exactly am I trying to say here? Excellent premise that is severely botched, fantastic potential for thrilling action that is never used, a densely convoluted story that somehow still manages to be engaging, and a strong cast that is never challenged. Push draws a perfect line down the median between excellent and terrible, and I can only hope that future films in what could very well be a franchise make sense of it all.
