Critic watch: Push

Critic watch: Push
By Joe Dawson


Director: Paul McGuigan
Written By: David Bourla
Produced by: Icon Productions
Starring: Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, Djimon Hounsou, Maggie Siff, and Scott Michael Campbell

Push is a sci-fi thriller about people with superhuman powers. The government is trying to build an arm by harnessing certain individuals’ special abilities, like the abilities to read minds and “push” things without touching anything. Dakota Fanning is a 13-year old girl who can see into the future and it isn’t pretty; she helps Chris Evan’s male character realize the magnitude of the situation that is about to face them. The movie is filled with suspense and a lot of supernatural action as they try to prevent the inevitable.
The critics had many different opinions about this movie. Steve Rea, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, gave this movie a fairly good review, rating it a 75 out of 100. He seemed to enjoy the fast pace action of the movie and the way it was filmed, with the use of swooping and jumping camera views. Rea used some creative language in the beginning of his review to draw the reader in, writing “when push comes to shove.” His rating was the highest of all the ratings given to this movie.
Other reviews were far less favorable. One review by Claudia Puig, of USA Today, gave this movie a 50 out a 100. Puig didn’t like the fact that this movie was so farfetched. She said it is a “silly movie” and “plenty convoluted.” Many critics agreed more with Puig; the average rating of this movie was 36 out of 100. Glenn Whipp gave a rating that was the closest to this average with a 38. He slammed the movie, calling it “painful.” He criticizes the whole plot of the story because it did not make much sense to him. Also, he didn’t like Dakota Fanning’s role saying she looked like a “bratz girl,” and that when acting drunk she failed miserably. But this was not the worst of all; the Miami Herald gave this movie a 25 and the Austin chronicle gave it an 11. Overall, the majority of the critics disliked this film because of its lack of logic and absurdly unrealistic plot.