It seems like just yesterday I was walking out of a screening of Jumper wondering how Hollywood could have turned such a promising idea into such a lackluster film. Films involving supernatural powers seem to be hit-and-miss nowadays – when they hit, they hit hard (Spider-Man) and when they miss, it’s by a lot (Hancock). This weekend saw the release of Push, yet another movie in the growing sub-genre involving people with special abilities. While it’s certainly no masterpiece, it has its moments and is nowhere nearly as painful to watch as some of its thematic predecessors.
Push follows Nick Gant (Chris Evans), an American ex-pat living in Hong Kong, who happens to be a second-generation “Mover” — think Jumper, but with telekinesis instead of teleportation. When Cassie (Dakota Fanning), a preteen who can see the future, enlists his services in tracking down a mysterious briefcase, he’s thrust into a race against time with a host of other supernatural players. There’s Carver (Djimon Hounsou), a prominent leader in the government program known simply as Division, who needs the contents of the case to make an army of superhumans. There’s also a Chinese gang of clairvoyants after the same thing so they can overthrow Division.
To top it all off, there’s a plethora of subplots involving everything from Nick’s father, to his ex-girlfriend, to Cassie’s mother, to his eventual plan to take down Division entirely. Not to mention there are individuals sporting so many different powers, you’d be forgiven for thinking you stepped into an episode of Heroes on crack. Aside from the Movers and Watchers, the film also introduces the audience to Wipers (they erase memories), Stitchers (healers), Bleeders (who yell a lot), Pushers (who manipulate thoughts), Shadows (who block the Watchers), and a few more ability-laden individuals for good measure.
Did you get all that?
Unlike Jumper, which failed to make the most out of a simple premise, Push is too ambitious for its own good. There are so many characters with so many different (and possibly hidden) motivations that it isn’t hard to get confused as to how everything interconnects. In the second act of the film, Nick hatches a plan that would be very engaging indeed, if we only knew what it was. For some reason, director Paul McGuigan refuses to give the audience any sort of reference point as to who is supposed to be doing what. We’re supposed to watch it all unfold and figure it all out on our own. That wouldn’t be too much to ask if the plan did not involve more than a dozen different major and minor characters all interacting with each other in specific ways at specific times. There’s a fine line between creating suspense and lazy writing, and Push crosses it repeatedly.
Most of the cast handles the material admirably well, particularly Hounsou. He learns from Samuel L. Jackson’s mistakes and provides a villain who, while not particularly compelling, at least isn’t laughable. Unfortunately, 14-year-old Dakota Fanning feels out of place and borderline exploited. Aside from spending the entire film in a miniskirt and constantly cursing, there’s also a scene played for laughs in which Cassie gets inebriated as a means of improving her Watching. Because yes, evidently in the world of Push, being drunk doesn’t dull the senses, it sharpens them!
Thankfully, despite a flawed second act and an ending that deliberately sets the stage for a sequel, there are enough fresh ideas to make Push an engaging watch, even if ultimately it’s only partially decipherable. At the very least, it isn’t boring. Each power could potentially be utilized in so many tactical ways that it’s interesting to see which path the writers ultimately choose for each of the three competing factions. McGuigan’s cinematography is unique enough to make even the hard-to-follow bits interesting. The camera is rarely static during the action scenes, moving with a kinetic energy that avoids the Paul Greengrass school of quick-cutting and allows the audience to see most of the choreography. Action directors take note enjoyable (and understandable) action sequences can help overshadow an inconsistent script.
Considering the constant stream of superpower-related films and television programming getting thrown our way nowadays, it’s easy to come away from the advertisements thinking Push is just more of the same. In many ways it is. However, there’s enough creativity in its mythology that it sets itself a slight step above the rest. Though its many parts fail to mesh together perfectly into a cohesive whole, at least it tries to be innovative and provide a few surprises, which is more than can be said for many other films that explore similar territory.
