Push

The opening moments of Push are devoted pretty much to explaining what we're about to see. We get a five minute monologue from Dakota Fanning who explains to us that there was a top secret Nazi experiment during World War II to create psychic soldiers. That experiment is still going on today, and so there are people walking amongst us with paranormal powers. Some are Watchers (they can see and draw what will happen in the future), some are Sniffers (they can smell an object and tell where it's been and who has used it), some are Movers (they have telekinetic mind powers), some are Bleeders (they can scream so loud they make your blood vessels explode), and some are Pushers (they can control your mind). All of these people are on the run from a government agency called The Division, who want to track them down and use their powers for their benefit.

You get all that? Good, because that's all you're getting. Push is a messy and jumbled attempt to cash in on the recent super hero boom, and also shares more than a few similarities with the TV series Heroes. Once we get that brief explanation, the movie throws us into a convoluted and increasingly confusing chase that sends our characters running across Hong Kong for a briefcase that holds a drug. The drug in question is supposed to enhance the superhuman abilities of these people, but usually it winds up killing them. There's one girl who's managed to survive, and The Division wants her. They also want the drug she managed to escape with. The girl everyone wants is Kira (Camilla Belle). She's a Pusher, and she's on the run from another Pusher who works for The Division named Carver (Djimon Hounsou, who is quickly building a career out of being the guy you get to cast in your movie if you can't get Samuel L. Jackson). Kira has a past with a Mover named Nick (Chris Evans), which is why he gets involved when a young Watcher named Cassie (Dakota Fanning) shows up on his doorstep one day, saying she needs his help in tracking down the briefcase.

There's a problem - Cassie's visions and the pictures she draws usually end with the two of them dying. If they want to see the end of this, they'll have to figure out a way to change the future. In order to do this, they'll have to stay one step ahead of not only The Division, but also some Chinese gangsters with paranormal powers who want the briefcase for their own means. Kira doesn't remember where the briefcase is. After she hid it somewhere, she had someone with mind-erasing powers wipe her mind a clean slate. So, what we get is a lot of actors running around, using their powers on each other, looking for this briefcase. It's an endless chase filled with characters we don't care much about. Not that the movie gives us much to go on to begin with. After a brief set up, the movie goes full tilt and never slows down enough to clue us in on what's going on, or why we should give a flip about what's going on in the first place. It's style over substance, and the style isn't enough to distract us.

Push seems to get murkier as it goes along. The character motivations in looking for this drug eventually becomes so clouded over in the screenplay by David Bourla that they become non-existent. They simply want the drug because they're there up on the screen. This wouldn't be so bad if the movie didn't add more and more characters to the mix, who usually exist to show off their powers and then move on. It piles on the characters, but the shaky storytelling doesn't have enough support to hold them all, so we're forced to watch it collapse in a pile of overblown battles and soulless special effects. The actors don't seem to be too concerned about breathing life into their characters, although Dakota Fanning at least attempts to add some emotion into her role. You get the sense she's here because she got a free trip to Hong Kong, rather than anything in the character she plays. As for Chris Evans, he's about as bland of an action hero you could want, doing as little as possible to stand out or even grab our attention.

You get the sense that Push has been designed to launch a franchise, but it's far too underdeveloped to make any audience want to see more. It's an unsatisfying experience all around, and seems content to do as little as possible. I will give the movie credit for one thing - It has a sneaky way to create potential controversy. It explains that booze helps Watchers have clearer visions, so there's a scene where Fanning's 13-year-old character gets drunk to help her own visions. All I could think while watching this scene is booze would probably help the experience of watching this movie as well.

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