'Push' review

Dakota Fanning (Credit: Summit)

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Apparently Hong Kong is overflowing with psychically-gifted young people hunted by a shadowy government organization known as The Division, which hopes to turn them into super-warriors for an unspecified agenda. There are "movers" like Nick (Chris Evans) who can transport objects with his mind, "watchers" like Cassie (Dakota Fanning) who see potential visions of the future and "pushers" like Nick's ex-girlfriend Kira (Camilla Belle) who can plant false memories in other people's minds. Kira also happens to be the only person to ever survive an injection of a drug designed to super size psychic powers, making her especially valuable to lead Division baddie Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou). Got all that? Good, because we haven't even discussed the "stitches," "sniffs," "shadows," "bleeders," "shifts" and "wipers" yet. But no worries, the movie kind of glosses over them too.

The buzz: Is there any chance that Summit Entertainment—the studio responsible for the smash success of "Twilight"—has another mega-hit on their hands, or will this attempt at a new sci-fi franchise flounder à la "Jumper" this time last year? (This "Push," by the way, is not to be confused with multiple Sundance film festival award winning "Push: Based on the Novel By Sapphire," recently acquired by Lionsgate and the recipient of genuinely good industry buzz.)

The verdict: It would take some pretty powerful mind control to convince audiences that "Push" is a winner—strong enough to overcome all memories of the flat characters, spotty visual effects and snoozy plot. On the plus side, you get to see Fanning pull off a reasonably convincing 13-year-old drunk scene and further proof that Evans is ready for the big time, if only someone would give him the right role. Otherwise the interesting moments are few and far between in a movie that's too long, too serious and too burdened by unfulfilled potential.

Did you know? It's a good bet all of this would work better as a graphic novel, which might be good news for DC Comics, who have the rights to a prequel comic book series designed to set the stage for the events of the movie.

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