PUSH
2009 Movie Review

The action packed sci-fi thriller involves a group of young American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities...

REVIEW:

PUSH is a gutsy film. Some people will really like this film because they made a film with an interesting storyline set in the very visual Hong Kong and not mind any of the obvious flaws that I saw in this film.

Step #1 for any film is to get the audience emotionally engaged. Push, like your classic action and/or sci-fi film is a journey film. An event or situation happens and people band together to solve the problem in their circle. There is always the good group and the bad group and it depends what side your watching to as who is actually good or evil.

Through that journey we need to get to know the characters we are following so we can root for them or root against them. If we don't get to know them, then we kind of stop caring about the ending and therefore the movie itself. The more we are emotionally engaged with our characters, the more we want to know what's going to happen next.

In PUSH, I didn't care about any of these characters and I was completely bored with the convoluted and difficult to maintain plot. They seemed to have told us too much in a voice over in the beginning to truly understand it. It was kind of like your high school math teacher laying down the entire semester's course load in the first class instead of patiently revealing the next chapter of information when the class is ready.

I'm sure all of us would figure out who the Movers, Pushers, Watchers, Bleeders, Sniffs, Shifters, Wipers, Shadows and Stitchers are in this world but it should be told to us in basic and revealing ways in every (just a suggestion) 10-15 minutes of the film. Not right at the beginning because we're not going to remember. And all of these types of people are highly interesting, just like the math lesson is for a lot of us. But you can't overwhelm us and try to jam it down our throat because we'll spit it all out and not swallow a thing.

Overwhelming is the one word I would describe PUSH.

There are two main characters in this film too who needed to form a bond that they never did. 13 year old Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning - who is amazing for her age!) and young adult Nick Evans (Chris Evans) need to have a Han Solo/Luke Skywalker kind of relationship. There needed to be love between the two of them that's hinted by them in the setup but never spoken. This did not happen and therefore heart was what was missing in this film.

And they needed to give us one main character, just like Luke Skywalker is, to follow and be with and see what he/she sees. They split the main characters in PUSH and it didn't work. Cassie Holmes needed to be that main characters because she is the most interesting character and you can't help but not want to follow her.

BUT I'm conflicted because the thing really disturbed me in PUSH is how they dressed Dakota Fanning and attempted to make her a sexy character. She is 13 years old and it was a little creepy for me. One of my nieces is almost that age and I shouldn't be looking at anyone that age like they photographed and apparantley wanted us to look at her.

I know it's one of those fine lines where Cassie needed to act and be a certain way, but it seemed to me at least that they crossed that line. We just didn't see that child in her like we should of. After all, she is only 13 years old and no matter how talented and smart she is, emotionally she is only a child.

This really took me out of the film as I didn't want to see someone that young reveal her legs that much and give certain looks to people in certain situations.

PUSH took a lot of chances and I admire them for it. It really is a sci-fi film with out of this world characters set in our world. And using Hong Kong as its setting was a genius move. I just think they didn't pace themselves properly and got a tad too heady.

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