Review: Push

Grade: B

Push is a sci-fi thriller about a group of young American people with different psychic powers who band together in order to try to bring down a government agency that hunts them down to either experiment on them in order to turn them into weapons or kill them, usually while experimenting on them. There are nine different kind of psychic abilities involved. Movers are people that can move objects with their minds, and if they are advanced enough, can even deflect bullets with their mind. Pushers are people that can put any thought, memory or emotion into a person’s head and can make them perform actions making them think it was their own agenda. Watchers can see into the future or track somebody by seeing what they are going to do. Bleeders are able to emit powerful high-pitched sonic frequencies that can cause blood vessels in people bodies to explode or can destroy certain objects. Sniffs act like psychic bloodhounds by being able to smell an object, or even the air, in order to track somebody and even see what they have done. Shifters are able to shift light to create illusions to the naked eye, for example they could pull out a 1 dollar bill and make it look like a 100 dollar bill for an extended period of time, the effects are not permanent. Shadows are able to “block” the vision of sniffs as long as they are near the subject in question. Lastly, Stitchers are people who can heal people rapidly with their hands, and if they want, even un-heal whatever they’ve done.

This movie mostly focuses around 2 characters played by Chris Evans (Fantastic Four, Sunshine) and Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds, Charlotte’s Web) as they try to find a case that contains an item that could bring down the government agency known as Division. Chris Evans did a great job as Nick Grant, a mover who is still trying to develop his powers. He was funny and did great with the action scenes, I have always enjoyed his acting. Evans’ back must be hurting because he had to carry Dakota Fanning’s acting through the movie. I don’t know how this girl still has a career, she has two modes, monotone and boring or screaming her head off (thankfully she didn’t do any of this in this movie because that almost ruined War of the Worlds). Her acting was stiff and drab throughout. Djimon Hounsou did a fantastic job as the evil Agent Henry Carver from division. He did a great job playing a character who clearly does not care if these people live or die, in fact in several scenes, it seems he prefers the latter. The rest of the cast was did a great job as well which included Camilla Belle (10,000 BC) as Kira Hudson, a pusher the Division it tracking as she is the only person to survive the injections they give these people, Nate Mooney as Pinky Stein a shadow they hire to protect Kira and Cliff Curtis (Sunshine) a shifter who helps them with their plan.

I did have a few, minor, problems with this movie. First, there are some scenes where the camera work is a little hectic and can be dizzying. Another being a something I just found didn’t make much sense. Chris Evans’ character at the beginning of the movie doesn’t seem to know how to use his power, he can’t even get a die to roll, but by the end of the movie (which is probably a day or two later) he is an expert at using his powers to the point where he can deflect bullets, a task only the top expert movers are able to accomplish. Lastly, I don’t know who’s idea it was to dress Dakota Fanning like a hooker, but that was grossly inappropriate. Her hair is dirty and frizzy and has ugly pink stripes in it but the worst part, was that the entire movie I had to watch this 13 year old girl walk around in a skirt so short it would make a Jenna Jameson blush and on top of that there were several scenes that she would be sitting or lying down and the camera would be in front of her and she would have her legs open, this was just wrong. Other than that Push was a very fun and very exciting sci-fi movie with a great cast