Boiled down to its influences, Paul McGuigan's PUSH is essentially a hybrid of X-MEN and THE FURY. It is the story of extra-abled misfits who are pursued all over the globe by nefarious government types (and their own extra-abled foot soldiers) who are keen to weaponize their powers. As in X-MEN, everyone is born with their specific "gift": there are "movers" (telekinetics), "watchers" (oracles), "sniffers" (telepaths), "stitchers" (healers), "pushers" (telepaths who can implant memories), and bleeders (people who, with sufficient training, could blow up John Cassavetes), and they all complement/offset one another in ways that will hopefully be intriguing to a paying audience.
The primary battleground for these folks is Hong Kong, which is where good-guy "mover" Nick Gant (Chris Evans), has found sanctuary from "The Division", the government agency bent on harnessing/enhancing the nascent power of these psychically endowed individuals (even though such Mengele-esque experimentation is very often fatal). Nick's stick-his-neck-out-for-no-one lifestyle is threatened, however, when the well-intentioned "watcher" Cassie (Dakota Fanning) tracks him down and begs for his help in locating a fugitive "pusher" named Kira (Camilla Belle) who may hold the key to tearing down The Division once and for all. After resisting the call to adventure for a scene or two like any respectable protagonist, Nick decides to throw in with Cassie; soon, they're both being pursued by the ruthless Agent Carver (Djimon Hounsou), who may have had something to do with the murder of Nick's father (stakes = raised).
Nothing terribly new, right? Perhaps. But for a film lacking a direct, pre-sold pedigree (be it novel, graphic novel, video game or board game), PUSH's conceptual familiarity may very well be a virtue; though the well-cut trailer prompted some to cry foul (i.e. "HEROES"), it looks like McGuigan has adroitly combined the conventions of the modern superhero movie with the aesthetic of a 1990s action movie. Or maybe he's just made a fucking 1990s action movie. Either way, you're safe in assuming that it doesn't end with two CG monsters performing pro wrestling moves on each other in the middle of downtown Toronto.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just not what McGuigan does. As he told a group of internet journalists during an editing bay visit last month, "If you want greenscreen, don't come to me." Having seen LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN, GANGSTER NO. 1 and THE ACID HOUSE, point taken.
But if you want practical action, exotic locations and a $60 million bang for your $30 million budget, you might want to give McGuigan a ring. Though I'm not ready to declare him the next John Frankenheimer or anything, there was a muscular, bruising, somewhat chaotic feel to the twenty-five minutes or so I saw of PUSH. I liked it. And if he can sustain that energy throughout the picture's (approximately) 100-minute run time, then PUSH could very well be one of the surprise hits of first-quarter 2009 (it's currently due out on February 6th).
But that's still a long way off. Right now, it's time for McGuigan to make his pitch. What better way to do that than to cram a bunch of jaded geeks into an editing suite just east of Universal Studios and show 'em the out-of-context goods?
McGuigan kicked off the presentation with the opening credit sequence, which skillfully dispenses with a huge chunk of exposition via a sobering voiceover from Cassie (accompanied by a propulsive Neil Davidge score). This is hardly a revolutionary storytelling device, but, with the origin nonsense out of the way, it does allow PUSH to barrel forward as a chase film (kind of like Louis Leterrier's THE INCREDIBLE HULK). From there, we jumped forward to the government "sniffers'" discovery of Nick (all they needed was a decade-old toothbrush), which leads into his meet-cute with the dainty-but-assertive Cassie. Nothing mind-blowingly awesome, but it's a solid dramatic scene.
I didn't start to perk up until the third scene, in which Kira evades a pair of Division agents by "pushing" one to gun down the other in the middle of a crowded cafe. It's a bluntly effective bit of violence (though, surprisingly, not R-rated, as PUSH already has its PG-13); you don't often see this kind of cold-bloodedness on display in, say, a Marvel Comics movie (at least not from the heroes - not even Wolverine*). After the surviving Division lackey takes a highly improbable ass-whipping from Kira, he's "pushed" into a Bud Dwyer moment courtesy of Agent Carver.
The most substantial scene we got to see (in terms of action, at least) was the dim sum throwdown between Nick and Agent Carver's henchmen. There are snippets of this sequence in the trailer, but more impressive than Chris Evans getting scraped across the ceiling of the restaurant is the telekinetic shootout wherein the combatants float guns all over the room to get a better vantage point. I don't know that I've seen this before. Sure, it's a potentially silly idea, but McGuigan's execution is straight-faced and very assured; it's nothing extravagant, but it's a fun little action set piece.
We also got a very brief look at the climactic battle, which takes place in a suitably wide-open space with lots of bamboo to smash into. Though the hand-to-hand combat plays out like live-action STREET FIGHTER (though not this live-action STREET FIGHTER - for better and worse), you really feel the physical damage for a variety of reasons: 1) there's no substitute for flesh-and-blood stuntmen, 2) McGuigan tried not to undercrank anything, and 3) it's just a really well-staged brawl with unobtrusive CG effects sprinkled throughout.
Throughout the presentation, I found myself quite taken with McGuigan's scrappy approach; I liked that most of the "wow" moments were in-camera, and, in some cases, captured with a Bolex 16mm. Obviously, he's yet another graduate of the Paul Greengrass School of Handheld Shooting, but I never once felt like I was watching a lazy, over-covered, studio-financed piece of shit. No, he's better than Paul W.S. Anderson. And while he may not be a visionary (I'll wait until he delivers his Robert Capa biopic to make that determination), he at least respects the audience enough to not disorient them with fifty-seven cuts per minute.
I guess that's how you stand out nowadays: you just... don't... suck. Here's hoping McGuigan follows through on the promise of this twenty-five minutes. We'll find out on February 6, 2009.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
*When they make a Punisher movie that can be taken seriously, we'll talk about The Goddamn Punisher.
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