PUSH

PUSH: SOMETHING BETWEEN 'HEROES' & X'-MEN'
by Reymundo Salao

First off, I apologize to you people who follow my column, I disappeared again because my pc got busted. I had to spend like 12 thousand to get it fixed and I had to beg and utang to get it fixed (replaced the motherboard, the works). So my column and my website had to sleep for 2 weeks. All I can do is some minor updates when I visited a friend's house. Anyway, I woke up early today and realized that WATCHMEN is not yet showing in Iloilo! AYudipu!!! What do they think of Iloilo? Uma?! You see, This friday is supposed to be the Opening Day for the highly anticipated movie adaptation of the graphic novel classic WATCHMEN (which is also one of TIME Magazine's top 100 books of all time). Oh well. Pahuway. It's still early and who knows maybe it's just a one day delay (cross fingers). Let's move on to a movie I saw last week which is currently on extended run; the superpowered action movie "PUSH"

PUSH feels like the TV series HEROES without the dull moments which in here are replaced by stylish hip cinematography and funky electronica mixes. PUSH also feels like a mellow version of "X-Men"; one without costumes and without the "save-the-world and mankind" aspect. PUSH's storyline simply revolves around a group of individuals gifted with psychic and superhuman abilities, which are hunted down by a secret government agency also composed of individuals with superhuman powers.

Chris Evans have impressed us and proved that he can act in a serious degree when he appeared in the Danny Boyle film SUNSHINE. Director Paul McGuigan was also impressed by Evans in that movie and because of this, Evans was cast as the lead character of this movie. Despite being better known by the mainstream moviegoing public as The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies, Chris Evans does a fine job handling the main character title here. Side-by-side Evans is Dakota Fanning and Camila Belle who looks a bit too worn-out in this movie. Djimon Honsou plays the lead villain who's out to hunt our main characters. Honsou never fails to be good in any role, and in this one, he's a coll villain.


The look, the feel, and the setting of the movie itself, which is in the streets of Hongkong is very colorfully urban artistic. Many of the shots feel too raw that it works best if you think of it as a "Matrix" of indie cinema. But what makes it a cool movie for some is what makes it a bad movie for others. The raw feel of the movie, you see, feels like it lacked a sense of explosion and magnitude to impress those who are expecting the blowout satisfaction by the typical superhero movie these days. Personally, I also felt that it lacked a certain amount of x-factor impact for me to consider it a really awesome flick. There were moments, while I'm watching the movie, that I felt that all my friends should watch this movie, but when I got to the end, it only gave me half the satisfaction I would have desired to have. Also, my main gripe about the movie is that the storytelling was not so tight. The movie tried to make the twists and turns of the plot interestingly complex, which was beautiful at some point. But where the storyline goes in the end, only proves that those twists really were just cheap storyline diversions. The unresolved ending craves for a sequel, which is a shame if the movie becomes unsuccessful and that sequel wont be produced. A shame because I did love this movie despite its little shortcomings, and I wanna see where the characters will go after this movie, which feels like just an episode.