"Push"

Normally I review a movie the day I see it. However, I watched this quite late last night so I didn't really have time to come write it before sleepiness took hold, hence the delay. So...

Movie Watched Yesterday: Push

Genre: Action / Sci-fi (a little)

Starring: Chris Evans
Dakota Fanning
Camilla Belle

Director: Paul McGuigan

Set in present day Hong Kong, the world in this movie is filled with people who have powers. For simplicity's sake, they are given cute little nicknames according to what their power is. Movers can move objects with their minds, Watchers can see the future (which is constantly changing), Pushers can put thoughts in people's heads and make them do things, Shifters can make anything look like something else for a short time, Sniffers can smell objects and know everyone who has touched them & where they are, Bleeders can kill things and break TONS of glass by screaming, etc. The movie follows a mover (Nick-Chris Evans), a watcher (Cassy-Dakota Fanning) who he is supposed to help, and a pusher (Kira-Camilla Belle) who is on the run from "Division," the evil corporation who wants to control all people with powers. Kira, the former lover of Nick, is the first to ever survive an injection by a drug which is said to boost the powers of "special" people, hence she is of great interest to Division and is sought by them.

The first time I saw this movie, I really liked it. That's why it is a little odd that I definitely did not like it as much the second time around. The following are mostly gripes, but I guess I'll find a few good things to say about it.

The Good: At it's core, this is an action movie, and when there actually is action it is handled quite well. There are TONS of chases (actually it almost feels like the entire movie is one big chase scene), explosions, shooting, and some good special effects.

The Bad:
-The acting. I've seen these actors in other movies, and I KNOW they can all act, so I really don't know why it came off as so bad...it could be the writing. Every conversation that Kira was in felt VERY awkward, almost like she didn't even get to see the script until 5 minutes before shooting. Cassy was alright with conversations but came off as extremely robotic sounding when explaining certain things. Her tone was almost screaming "listen up, audience. I am an explainor, watch me explain." Nick was quite un-serious the entire time even when facing certain death, but that's kind of Chris Evans's acting style anyway.
-The plot. They did not investigate the powers enough. Even though there is this colorful Hong Kong world they are in with these crazy powers all over the place, the movie ends up being a simple "smash-and-grab / run away from the evil corporation" flick. It really could have been soooooooo much more.
-The pacing. When there isn't action going on, the movie definitely drags. They should have made the in-between-action scenes more interesting (AKA more character development)
-The ending. Sure, the big bad guy dies, but there is ZERO closure with any of the main characters. None whatsoever. Their plan pretty much succeeded, but what now? It's almost as if they wanted to make more but ran out of money (*cough*Babylon AD*cough*)

Would I watch it again? Yeah, eventually. I wouldn't recommend spending money to see it though.

Final Score - 4/10