Telekinesis, clairvoyance, telepathy. People with special powers hiding their existence and trying to lead normal lives. A secret group hunting them down. A government conspiracy. An old Nazi experiment. An important but dangerous drug. A prophecy.
Pick up a “100 Overused Devices in Science Fiction” book and you’ll find any of those listed. They’re nothing new. They’re staples of sci-fi stories dating back decades; but recently they’ve become the new trend, part of the geek-chic tableau that somehow makes these “superpowers” a big draw. So while the similarities are plenty, let’s not be so quick to call Push a rip-off of the television show Heroes as some would point out. Heroes is only a catalyst, the trendsetter that kicks projects like Push to the top of the pile.
And lo, Push it did, with great impatience. Starting with a flashback to ten years ago, when a great prophecy is laid out for the audience: “Someday a girl will hand you a flower,” a man said to a young boy. “Save the girl, save all of us.” The opening credits then roll as a voiceover hurriedly recites a lengthy backstory about Nazi experiments gone awry and government agencies collecting superpowered folks, given layman classifications like Movers (telekinetic), Watchers (clairvoyant), Pushers (telepathic), and so on. You know a story is going to be convoluted when it has to spell out the premise for you. There’s an importance in science fiction to set up the world it inhabits. The best ones do it naturally as the plot moves on, the rest have stilted first acts. Push, however, simply gives you the crib notes to get you up to speed then throws you into the middle of a crisis in progress.
This is fine if the movie just wants to throw around super-fights (which are fun for a few winks) but it doesn’t. For a two hour action film that uses its energetic drive as a crutch, it’s too light on the action, heavy on exposition. Much of it are twists and turns and plans and back-up plans and deals and cross-deals and cons and counter-cons, all full of holes and terribly uninteresting. It’s like the X-Men wandered into a bad Guy Ritchie film.
The story, by the way, is set “2 days from today” according to the text at the bottom of the screen—perhaps because “today” is a sucky day.
The young boy grows up to be an American expatriate in Hong Kong with a gambling problem named Nick (Chris Evans), a Mover who’s so bad with his powers that he can’t even move dice to his advantage. One day the girl with the flower shows up: a 13-year-old Watcher named Cassie (Dakota Fanning) who urges Nick to help her find a mysterious briefcase—MacGuffin is the brand name—that would help them bring down a shadowy US Government agency called Division, whose agents are in Hong Kong to capture escaped Pusher Kira (Camille Belle). Too bad the Triad, also superpower-equipped, wants the briefcase too.
If the film doesn’t properly introduce these situations or give any clue regarding the dozen or so characters involved in the story, don’t worry, it’s because they’re all happening according to the prophecy—unless we want them changed, of course. Thanks, conveniently arbitrary rules to clairvoyance.
You can just see the film sitting there, crossing its fingers and praying for a sequel. We’ll save those details for the next installment. Or not.
Surprisingly, Push uses its Hong Kong setting very well, giving a somewhat refreshing flavor to the nonsense. This is what happens when a stylish director and a cool bunch of talented actors try to make the best out of a script that reads like a map with no street names. As someone who lived in Hong Kong for seven years, the film brings back apt memories of Hong Kong’s not-so-picturesque corners—the high-rise slums, the dirty harbors, stuffy markets, tiny shops and underground walkways.
Paul McGuigan’s style has drips of early Wong-kar Wai: grainy handheld, fish-eye lens, pop montage and fluorescent colors in dark crowded places. Even the actors perform amicably; Chris Evans is always engaging and Dakota Fanning brings plenty of fun as a sassy preteen who gets drunk and packs heat. It’s unfortunate that they’re all rolling up their sleeves to push while the script hangs back on a lawn chair giving the thumbs up.
"Push" opens February 6, 2009 and is rated PG13. Action, Sci-Fi. Directed by Paul McGuigan. Written by David Bourla. Starring Djimon Hounsou, Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camille Belle, Cliff Curtis.
