Push Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: Individuals with various psychic powers find themselves involved with a plot to recover a serum that greatly enhances these powers.

Review: This is one of those movies you watch and then completely forget about almost immediately despite it having some good ideas. It's kind of hard to explain because the story is on the bland side with some obvious holes as if they were holding back for an intended sequel which I wouldn't hold my breath for. This is probably the worst and most annoying aspect of the film. It's not as though this is an established brand that fans can jump aboard. It hurt the film tremendously to save material pointlessly when this was the one chance to wow the audience. For example, we keep hearing about the one girl, Cassie's, played humorously by Dakota Fanning, mother as the greatest clairvoyant in the world setting the events of the film in motion; the film even ends with a line about "time to get your mom" or something to that nature. Well, maybe that should have been the plot to this film! There is also the dad of the main guy, Nick, played by Chris Evans, who knew something was up before he died as if there were a bigger scheme afoot. These kind of shenanigans occur the entire movie long. It's just something weird you will pick up on as you watch the film with plotlines that keep pointing toward a larger picture that is meant to unfold later. Speaking of which, the plot is nothing special or even close to original as it felt much like a theatrical version of "Heroes" which is basically the X-men which is allegedly a ripoff of the Doom Patrol. These people aren't superheroes though and, to be more precise, the characters have typical psychic powers (though they have little nicknames for them) like telekinesis, clairvoyance, and mind control, with a few other bullshit powers like sonic screams, knowing someone's location through touching their stuff, and, most bullshit of all, the ability to block other people's power. This bothers me so much because how would you ever discover this ability?! Apparently some sector of the government, called the Division, has been working on a drug or whatever to improve the overall powers of an individual. This organization is so cliched they don't even make sense. The government wants to control people with these powers yet everyone at the Division has powers? Plus, if they're rounding up people with powers, as it is implied, why are so many allowed to run free? This is not to mention the main point of the film is to find a girl named Kira (better grab your notebook honey!), played by the always captivating Camilla Belle, who has the only version of the serum and is the only survivor of its injection. But we get no real understanding of how her powers have been boosted. I'm having flashbacks to "Star Wars" with the whole Anakin is the chosen one bullshit even though he never really does anything better than a regular jedi master. So if the serum doesn't even do anything major, what is the point to anything? But the pointlessness to it all is further exasperated due to the fact that Nick and his crew want to protect Kira and the serum while the Division and a bonus group of criminals with powers also seek the serum. So everyone wants this dumb drug that doesn't even do anything from what we can tell! Okay, with all that said, I still must admit this is a fun action film that somehow becomes an interesting heist movie in the last half hour. I am sucker for watching people with powers fight each other and this movie mostly delivers. But seriously, all the powers suck except telekinesis since you could rip people to shreds if it were possible. I'd be rampaging through the city blowing shit up "Dragon Ball Z" style if I had those powers! It was annoying seeing Nick constantly getting his ass handed to him even when he had the upper hand. Actually, Nick comes close to dying multiple times, but he's always spared for dumbass reasons which was a wonderful ongoing contrivance. As for the heist, Nick assembles a cool group with various powers and they plot to recover the serum and defeat the Division and the crime gang respectively. I should mention one member of the crew is Emily, played by the, seemingly, forever beautiful Ming-Na Wen; does this woman ever age?! And another hot chick was the lollipop girl (how provocative) from the crime gang played by Xiao Lu Li. The heist works out nicely because the hardest part is blocking the clairvoyants who know what you will do. So Nick writes down everyone's job along with decoys and then erases his mind so not even he knows the plan anymore. Needless to say, it all works out in their favor as they get the serum but idiotically lose Kira which was conveniently a part of the plan in order to defeat the Division. All right, I definitely liked this movie more than I should have. It is certainly not without its flaws, which there are numerous, but it is fun and mostly delivers at what  it was trying to offer. There were some fun ideas that would have made for an entertaining franchise even if unoriginal. More so, there was a certain charm to it all that I'm sure many won't care about. Of course a major contributor to rating this film a little higher was the abundance of babes that always goes that extra mile for me! Overall, this is a mediocre film held back by the writer's own stupidity while made slightly better by decent casting, some cool effects, and an admirable heist. "Push" is worth a rental or watch it on TV, but that's about as far as I'd go with it.

Notable Moment: Probably when Cassie says the line, "damn," because, for some reason, I constantly keep repeating the stupid way she says it years later. I'll admit, sometimes I can't explain myself.

Final Rating: 6/10

The lovely ladies of "Push" starting with Ms. Belle:

Ms. Wen:

Ms. Li: