6/10 -> C

The movie starts with the nearly painful introduction narration which acts more as a declaration of unoriginality of this movie than a prologue which is supposed to relieve us of long set-up part of the movie and throw us directly into the action. Luckily it imminently picks up. And while it never achieves anything than just some good fun here and there, I wasn't bored once. It's not the best people-with-superpowers-actioner but it's not awful too.

C+


Push was a free screening by the distributor as a marketing effort for the film's release on DVD (the movie didn't go to theatres in Germany). Now I went in with somewhat mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am usually very much a sucker for superhero-themed flicks (hey, I stuck with Heroes throughout all of Season 3, that says a lot), enjoyed Paul McGuigan's previous films like Lucky Number Slevin and Gangster No. 1 and I liked the trailer for Push. On the other hand I knew of the pretty much horrendous reviews and WoM this film has received from most people and having Camilla Belle in a film usually spells trouble (see 10,000 B.C. and When a Stranger Calls).

Just as my feelings preceding the film were mixed they were also still mixed after I have seen it. One thing for certain: it was not by far as bad as most made it out to be. In fact, believe it or not, the film has received some scattered applause when it was over (maybe had to do with the fact that it was a free screening). Was it applause-worthy? No, certainly not. But I thought that the film has shown a lot of promise and some solid and unusual direction for this type of a film. It's just that the movie by far does not live up to its potential and to the world that it set up. Instead it resorts to a very contrived plot and some unintentionally funny scenes.

As I said, the set-up is pretty cool. I liked the fact that most of those superheroes in this film were quite down to earth and weren't even able to fully control their abilities. I also liked how the names for their abilities (like Sniffers, Bleeders, Pushers etc.) sounded like some drug dealing slang showing that their world is not full of adventure and glamor, but that in fact most of them lead rather pitiful existences being either hunted or used. The abilities themselves, while mostly conventional were presented well too. I liked that they didn't go over the top as far as the number of different abilities went (thankfully no time-traveling here!). However, in execution some of the powers brought out unintentional laughs. I really couldn't hold myself back when the Asian guys started to scream at that market scene. It simply looked quite ridiculous no matter how much they tried to show it as threatening. Another instance of bad-looking powers was when Nick (Chris Evans) battled the other Mover at the end of the film and all those colorful flashes appeared. That looked silly. The rest of the effects seemed fine. I was glad that the film was not over-reliant on CGI actually.

Another thing I enjoyed about the film was its exotic Hong Kong location. I thought the city was shown in a pretty interesting way considering they didn't just go with the beautiful tourist-y parts, but also with the rundown districts of the city. It was a nice shift from the usual NYC setting of superhero-themed movies. As far as the acting goes, obviously no one's winning an Oscar for this, but I thought that most were fine in their role. However - what the hell happened to Dakota Fanning and her acting?! I thought she was pretty much the worst of all main actors and when those are comprised of Chris Evans and Camilla Belle that kinda says a lot.

I think the film is best-experienced if you walk in, not expecting an action spectacle because frankly there isn't much action in the film anyway. It's more of a superhero thriller with a swift pace and a fairly interesting storyline. However towards the end things become more and more unnecessarily contrived (I'm thinking of Nick's "great" plan at the end) making the whole thing even less logical than your usual superhero movie. It's also too bad that the film definitely set itself up for a sequel that will never happen. All in all there was potential here, but the film only rarely really lived up to it. Considering the rather messy screenplay and a less-than-stellar cast I've gotta give it to the director for (almost) making the best out of it. It's not a bad way to waste 100 minutes.

This movie is a blast. Underrated.

i saw this yesterday and i quite enjoyed it. if this had nolans name attached to it you would all shit your pants, you dirty hypocrites. the truth is that this is a much more enjoyable movie than something like inception, with creative imagery and a cool soundtrack.

I've seen this before and never really knew its name because my wife chose it on one the Chinese sites. It's not good, but I couldn't review it or even grade as I have deleted the memories.

It seems that this movie pushed Paul McGuigan over the edge into TV directing.