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Push at first sight seems to be a movie-version of Heroes or a rip-off of X-Men and that’s not necessarily a bad thing as it basically never dull to see people with special power wreak havoc. Jumper is a fine example of such a movie that succeeds to be entertaining even though there is little originality to be found. Push tries to follow in these footsteps and succeeds partially.
Push centers around Nick Gant (Chris Evans). His father had the power of telekinesis and he seems to have inherit that special gift. Ever since he as a child saw his father murdered at the hands of a government agent belonging to a department simply called The Division he is leading a secluded life in Hong Kong. One day a young girl (Dakota Fanning) appears at his doorsteps who claims she can see the future. They go out to find another girl (Camilla Belle) who has the ability to control people’s minds. She is wanted by The Division as she is the first to survive a treatment that enhances these powers and turns these gifted people into perfect weapons.
Push starts off as fun movie when we see Nick fool around with his powers he which hasn’t got under control yet. He’s trying to keep off the radar and has enough problems as it is with his gambling depths. When he meets Cassie (Fanning) the movie loses some of its fun as the characters start chasing a McGuffin, in this case a woman everyone is looking for. This part of the movie brings us some nice exposition of different types of powers characters have including two Chinese blokes who scream and do it while looking really annoying. When they find the girl, a “pusher” named Kira, the McGuffin shifts and everybody is after a case she has hidden. From this moment on the movie felt really cheap having 3 groups of people all looking for the same object. Unlike Pulp Fiction we get to know the contents of the case: samples of the serum that enhanced Kira’s powers without killing her.
The last act of the movie consists of groups of people trying to outsmart each other and while there is a clever plot device with letters this will be confusing to most people and therefor becomes uninteresting pretty quick. It’s like the latest installment of Saw where the twist endings really feel forced and we don’t really care anymore. It’s as if the makers wanted to make a smarter movie than it should be but got confused themselves. A shame because the trailer really looked promising and the action scenes from the trailer are the best thing of the movie. Push could have been more than what it is and I recommend X-Men or the first season of Heroes for anyone who has seen this movie and feels disappointed.
