Director: Paul McGuigan
Starring: Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning & Djimon Hounsou
An entertaining, low budget sci-fi/action film that mixes a comic book-style plot and characters to satisfying results.
Whilst on the surface, Push’s world of psychics and their powers, of a shadowy organization trying to turn them into weapons and the attempts to fight back of those they target could come across as yet another comic book adaptation. However, despite the characters’ powers being presented like super-powers and despite the film having a comic book adaptation in publication, Push is an original concept taking a superhero sensibility to an old sci-fi concept with lashings of intense, kinetic action for good measure.
In the world that Push inhabits, there are people living among us with psychic abilities. There are many kinds, amongst them include “Movers” who can move objects telekinetically, “Watchers” who see the future, “Pushers” who can alter memories or implant subconscious commands into people, “Bleeders” who emit high-pitched sonic screams and “Shifters” who are able to alter the shape and appearance of objects. With a shadowy organization called Division looking to use or experiment upon people with psychic abilities, those that possess them are faced with just a few choices: join them and either work with them or die, fight them or go into hiding. Nick (Evans), a “Mover”, is a man in hiding after witnessing his father being killed fighting Division when Nick was a child. Now living in Hong Kong, using his abilities to cheat at gambling, he is approached by a young girl Cassie (Fanning), a “Watcher” who claims to see a future where Division can be defeated and her own mother freed but requires Nick’s help and that of an escaped “Pusher” named Kira (Camilla Belle) who is the only psychic to survive a drug devised by Division to amplify psychic ability.
While Push follows a fairly straight-forward course of people on the run having to fight off Division agents pursuing them, led by a “Pusher” named Carver (Hounsou), and a psychic Hong Kong Triad group and then choosing to fight back, mixing in a macguffin, a briefcase containing Division’s drug, some colorful allies in Cliff Curtis’ “Shifter” and enemies in Xiao Lu Li’s Triad “Watcher” and a destiny to be fulfilled, it is helped by some good performances from its cast, some exciting and inventive action sequences that make the most of the film’s limited budget and a world that is well-developed in its 110minute running time.
Chris Evans manages the leading man role of Nick very well, delivering his lines with a mix or wry charm and weary cynicism, Dakota Fanning handles a lot of exposition explaining the plot and Push’s world very well whilst effectively portraying her character as one that is wiser than her years suggest due to the futures she has seen and the life she has led. Hounsou is convincingly intimidating as the ruthless Division operative hunting down his escapee test subject while the supporting cast is filled with satisfying, if sometimes brief, performances from Cliff Curtis, Ming Na and Nate Mooney. If there’s one role that is less convincing, it is that of Kira, performed by Camilla Belle whose role changes frequently with different twists and turns in the plot with Belle sometimes struggling to keep up or convince in portraying the effects upon her character.
While there is a lot of set up in Push for potential sequels to develop further, Push itself stands alone far more effectively and satisfyingly than some other recent attempts at starting a sci-fi franchise such as 2008’s Jumper or Babylon A.D. With some entertaining action sequences and performances and an interesting world and characters, Push has enough to recommend it that, despite a somewhat predictable plot, still places the film above average.
Rating: 3/5
