DVD Review - Push

Directed by Paul McGuigan, Push is a science-fiction film about people with extraordinary psychic abilities. It's basically a comic book movie, although it's not based on a comic book, but an original screenplay by David Bourla, who had previously written only direct to DVD features.



The film stars Chris Evans as Nick Gant, a telekinetic whose father was hunted and killed by the vaguely named Division, a branch of the government devoted to hunting down and experimenting on those with special abilities.



He's found by Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), who is what's known as a Watcher (she can see the future). Her mother had the same gift and was kidnapped by Division when Cassie was a little girl. She is searching for a pusher, which is someone who can make their thoughts your own. The pusher is Kira Hudson (Camilla Belle), who has a mysterious case that will lead to the end of Division.



Chasing them is Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou), another pusher and Division big-wig. He is hoping to find Kira because she is the first survivor of a test injection meant to boost the powers of the psychics.



Thus we have the first Grand Canyon size plot hole of the film. If the injection kills people, why do they keep using it? This and many other questions go unanswered over the course of the film. The ending in particular feels like it was intended to be continued in a sequel that we will probably never see. The film received mostly bad reviews and barely made it's budget back. Evans, Fanning, and Belle do an adequate job, and the special effects are decent, but the plot is confusing and overly complicated, and most of the editing is too erratic to be effective.



I would only recommend this film to hard-core sci-fi and action nerds, but most others will just find it annoying and, at almost two hours, overly long.
Grade: 6
All movies are graded on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being cinematic perfection, and 1 being anything Mark Hamill has done that wasn't Star Wars related.)