Some of us are pushers… erm that’s people who can reprogram your brain to believe anything. You thought I was talking about drugs? Nope, it’s just a jumbled sci-fi adventure film. Others of us just push reviews.
Since World War II, people with psychic abilities have been experimented on by governments to try and make an invincible army of those with extraordinary powers. The United States shadowy organization in charge of rounding these people up is called the Division.
Nick Gant (Chris Evans) is hiding in Hong Kong but in his youth his father, who was killed by the Division, told him to help a girl that gives him a flower. That girl turns out to be Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), the daughter of the most powerful clairvoyant that the Division has ever seen so they keep her confined in their headquarters.
The Division has been experimenting with a drug to heighten the powers but each person given the drug dies. That changes when Kira (Camilla Belle) survives the injection and escapes the Division headquarters, taking a vial of the drug with her. Agent Carver (Djimon Hounsou), a high-ranking Division agent, tracks Kira to Hong Kong and runs into Nick.
Nick has been aching for revenge against Carver since he was the one that killed his father all those years ago. However, many governments are after the formula and Nick has to come up with a plan to get them all out alive before they’re killed for the vial.
Push takes some interesting powers and drops them into the interesting and garish Hong Kong locations. Those powers are divided up into Movers, who move things with telekinesis, Pushers, who can “push” thoughts into your head and manipulate you, Watchers, who can see the future, Bleeders, who emit high pitched noises that rupture your blood vessels, Sniffs, who track you by your scent on objects, Shifters, who shift light to create illusion, Wipers, who can whip memories away, Shadows, who can block the vision of those with other powers, and Stitchers, who use their psychic ability to heal or hurt.
Unfortunately there’s so much going on that it can all get a bit confusing by the end. The movie is set up as if a series of films were to follow, but I’m thinking that’s not going to happen. So there are some plot ends that might not get resolved (such as Cassie’s mom). You might have a bit of psychic overload in trying to keep all of it straight.
The film does feature some nice action scenes and keeps things moving at a frenetic pace. Though much of them feel like they’re unnatural, what I mean by that is they feel like they’re set up by the film production not naturally occurring in the world of the film. Especially when in the grand finale Nick starts “pushing” sandbags and they happen to be filled with different colored sand. Looked nice on film but it had me rolling my eyes.
It’s a passable sci-fi actioner, but it feels like it was made for today’s tween audience and not connoisseurs of the genre.
Push is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1). Special features include a commentary with director Paul McGuigan and actors Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning. The rest are featured in high definition. The 9 minute “The Science behind the Fiction” looks at the attempts at using psychic ability as a weapon. There are also 3 minutes of deleted scenes with an optional director’s commentary.
Push does have a moment or two, but you may be scratching your head when it’s all over with. It’s made for a younger age group than I, but I did get caught up in the action – no matter how stylized it was.
Push [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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