Push Movie Review

I picked this up at the kiosk at the local market last night, not expecting a decent movie in anyway. Just look at the Rotten Tomatoes reviews: 17%. Roger Ebert says, "Push has vibrant cinematography and decent acting, but I'm blasted if I know what it's about. 1.5/4" After watching this movie, its hard to disagree. You pretty much are completely confused until the end. But Push is definitely well-thought out, and its got some pretty awesome special effects. Let me explain...

The story is basically X-Men meets Jumper. It's like X-Men where its a group of basically mutants, and its like Jumper where the government is trying to track them down because they're too dangerous. I wasn't a big fan of Jumper (you can see my review, I gave it a D+), but they took the best part of that movie and put it into Push. This sounds great, but when you think about it, this movie really is copycat. Push does have some originality, but it mainly copied a bunch of movies and TV shows (I forgot to mention Heroes). But I guess of you say that, you also have to say all super hero movies are the same, which is not true. It's just that Push didn't really come up with it's own ideas, but its more of a collage of great super hero ideas. I don't think thats a bad thing, in fact, if they did it right (which hey did), this could actually work (which it did).

Of course, this movie is going to be greatly graded on its special effects. This is another one of Push's strengths. The action sequences are fantastic, and the last fight scene is exciting, thrilling, and scary at the same time. Everything was as realistic as any super hero film (including the Dark Knight). Of course, if the movie has no story, all this is pointless action, which is what I thought of Transformers 2. 

Basically I already said the plot, but what makes this movie good is its ability to be smart. I really like the plan they had at the end, which is well thought out. But the movie is not always smart. Sometimes is just plain silly. Its as simple as that. The asian screaming people had the dumbest power, and they weren't needed in the movie at all. 

Another huge problem is character development. Actually, there is none. There is never a point in the movie where we actually care about anyone but the little girl. Okay, that's a little dramatic, but the movie just doesn't make us feel extremely devastated if someone is about to die (not to spoil anything, I'm just saying in theory). So we do care for the two main characters most of the time, but we never have a reason why. I just wish instead of all the action in the first 5 minutes we could have more backstory (especially for the Dakota Fanning girl, she just walks into the guys apartment and suddenly she's a main character). We do learn more throughout the movie, but I just think we should care for the characters from the beginning.

The acting was impressive, considering Dakota Fanning (Charlottes Web) and Chris Evens (Fantastic Four) were in it, but to my surprise they were the best actors in the whole movie. Crazy, huh? The evil black guy (sounds like Jumper, right?) gives a solid performance, and I've never even heard of him. Really this is Push's biggest surprise.

Now I've been complementing the story a lot, but this is where Ebert's quote comes into my review. This movie is darn confusing, and I'm glad to realize its not just me being stupid (because Roger Ebert is a genius. Yeah, that's exaggerating). But really, everything goes by so fast that I had to rewind the first 3 minutes numerous times just to understand what was going on. 

Another minor complaint, I really don't like the art direction, music, and shaky camera. Gives the movie a different feel than it really should.

So there are some extreme positives and extreme negatives. Thats why this is my longest review, and one of the hardest ones to write. While I completely understand the horrible reviews, there is just something I like about Push. Maybe its the effects, maybe its the somewhat cool story. Maybe it's because I had low expectations, or maybe I'm a sucker for super hero movies. Whatever you want to say, Push is a good movie for me, but it may not be for you. I suggest a rental just to see what you think, but if you're like me, your gunna love it.

B

Trailer: