Home Cool News Coaxial Reviews Zone Chat Contact Us Sign in

Massawyrm is disappointed by PUSH...



Hola all. Massawyrm here.

The problem with PUSH is not so much that which you will actually see on the screen. Rather, the problem is more about what you won’t see. PUSH is actually a fun little film, a pop song version of a Vertigo style storyline crammed full of cool ideas, a neat mythology and some great young talent. But if you’ve seen the movie JUMPER, then you know exactly what’s wrong with this film – because they both suffer from the same debilitating flaw.

They were made by people who wanted to make a series more than they wanted to tell a story.

A good film has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Everyone knows that. But having an ending doesn’t mean that the story just stops – or that many of the ideas introduced have a resolution. No. Having an ending means that you feel like you’ve heard the whole story; it means that when you walk out of the theater, while you may want to spend more time with those characters, THIS story is over with. A first film in a proposed series on the other hand, doesn’t. And every flaw that PUSH has stems from the fact that when you get to the end of the movie, many of the characters walk off into the sunset talking about a sequel.

The biggest problem with the film is that it is a setup story. It merely wants to introduce us to the characters. No one has anything resembling a real character arc and everyone’s backstory is boiled down into a short piece of dialog that they can drop on the audience in a matter of seconds. By the end of the film you know more about how the character’s powers work than you actually do the characters themselves. Who the hell is Dakota Fanning supposed to be anyway? She can see the future. Her mom could too. But she’s not good at it. They’ll tell you all that. What you’ll never understand is what effect seeing the future actually has on a 13-year old girl, or what she’s had to do to stay alive with people chasing her. Because that’s not important. She’s not a little girl who can see the future – she a plot point delivery device.

That’s not to say that making a character out of her isn’t their intent. But you won’t see any real character out of ANYONE in this movie. They are powers, not people. And that’s always the biggest sin of any comic book style movie. Every bit of information we’re given feels like they’re keeping three or four other secrets to go with it – secrets we’ll see in another movie. There are characters mentioned but never seen; story angles hinted at but never fleshed out; and an entire plot structure that revolves around a McGuffin that doesn’t even serve a real purpose in this film. At all.

By the time you get to the end of the film, you don’t feel like a single character has been used up, that a single person has accomplished anything or that this film served any purpose but to show you some cool special effects and introduce you to characters who you might give a shit about later. And the effect leaves you feeling rather hollow throughout the whole film. Not a bit of it really resonates because we’re never given a reason to care about these characters. Oh sure the government is EVIL…because the government is ALWAYS EVIL in these things. But that’s not reason enough to root for our good guys. Unfortunately, it will have to do. Because that’s all the motivation there is here.

Walking out of this, I felt like I’d just watched a mediocre TV pilot. Something cool, but lacking, that made me say “Yeah, I’ll watch a few more episodes and see if it gets any better before I make up my mind.” If the next movie kicks ass and weaves in a number of plot points that explains some of the weaker points of this film, GREAT! But that doesn’t make this a good movie now. As a film, PUSH fails because while it has several fun moments and ideas, it isn’t really a very good story. It’s just the beginning of what could be a very good story. THE MATRIX, STAR WARS, HIGHLANDER, ALIEN. These are great first stories that were able to spawn larger, more evolved mythos. But when you finish watching them, you never feel like they haven’t told you the whole story. This does.

I feel like I was cheated out of what could be a good movie because they wanted me to watch three movies instead. There’s nothing wrong with trying to design a series of films – but when you can’t write it solidly enough to make us feel like we saw the whole thing when we didn’t, you have failed. You want an audience to want to return to your story because the last one was so good, not begrudgingly because they want to find out how it ends to make the time they’ve already spent worthwhile. If they make a second film, that is exactly the reason I would see it. Not because I really liked this one – but because I would really like to like it.

And that’s no way to tell a story.

Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.

Massawyrm

Got something for the Wyrm? Mail it here.



AddThis Social Bookmark Button
Click for previous story Talk Back More on this story Click for next story

User login

Reader Talkback

Pushed my first
by garcicr
Feb 6th, 2009
09:19:36 AM
Foist!
by Big_Daddy_Nero
Feb 6th, 2009
09:19:58 AM
Im all alone
by garcicr
Feb 6th, 2009
09:20:02 AM
Aww hell no!
by Big_Daddy_Nero
Feb 6th, 2009
09:20:19 AM
This is why I hate "franchise" filmmaking...
by Nasty In The Pasty
Feb 6th, 2009
09:20:48 AM
Massawyrm is disappointed
by el-guappo
Feb 6th, 2009
09:20:57 AM
So jumper
by garcicr
Feb 6th, 2009
09:20:58 AM
Only 25% at RT
by Nasty In The Pasty
Feb 6th, 2009
09:23:54 AM
Having an Ending
by Mr Gorilla
Feb 6th, 2009
09:31:13 AM
Yeah, but he loved Taken, so what does that say?
by coconutgroves
Feb 6th, 2009
09:42:24 AM
I liked it
by Freakemovie
Feb 6th, 2009
09:55:08 AM
the problem with JUMPER was the main character
by Spandau Belly
Feb 6th, 2009
09:57:22 AM
I'm not surprised...
by lovecraftian
Feb 6th, 2009
10:07:44 AM
coconutgroves, plenty of people loved Taken.
by TheLastCleric
Feb 6th, 2009
10:08:35 AM
Taken was a complete joke
by Talkbacker with no name
Feb 6th, 2009
10:17:14 AM
Are you surprised that it sucks?
by mistergreen
Feb 6th, 2009
10:27:05 AM
simultaneously, ridiculously bad, and smart at the same time
by lovecraftian
Feb 6th, 2009
10:28:11 AM
Taken kicked ass, go fuck yourself
by bullet3
Feb 6th, 2009
10:32:20 AM
This is a huge part of why I didn't like the Pirates sequels.
by Archive
Feb 6th, 2009
10:43:06 AM
Damn
by Zappary
Feb 6th, 2009
10:56:51 AM
Push, Wanted, Jumper... I thought it was a trilogy
by spacechampion
Feb 6th, 2009
10:57:19 AM
The Pirates sequels were different...
by DreadPirateRoberts
Feb 6th, 2009
11:01:56 AM
Is anyone surprised?
by Drunken Rage
Feb 6th, 2009
11:05:14 AM
Massawyrm is disappointed by PUSH...
by drwynninblack
Feb 6th, 2009
11:08:43 AM
I hope the sequel is called SHOVE
by Spandau Belly
Feb 6th, 2009
11:26:23 AM
Taken was awesome!
by TheMcflyFarm
Feb 6th, 2009
11:35:04 AM
Massa, so what time will you be posting...
by Shepard Wong
Feb 6th, 2009
11:49:03 AM
What about Lord of the Rings?
by pip1345
Feb 6th, 2009
11:49:27 AM
LOTR is a special circumstance too
by Bouncy X
Feb 6th, 2009
12:10:31 PM
pip1345
by stickmangrit
Feb 6th, 2009
12:12:43 PM
LOTR is ONE book!!!
by lukasman
Feb 6th, 2009
12:15:53 PM
I iked this movie when it
by skimn
Feb 6th, 2009
12:23:44 PM
looked like Jumper part 2
by BMacSmith
Feb 6th, 2009
12:42:50 PM
February
by thewizardofoz
Feb 6th, 2009
12:49:59 PM
AAAAnd a good film review...
by Rogue4
Feb 6th, 2009
12:52:20 PM
Spandau Belly
by lucky slevin
Feb 6th, 2009
12:55:49 PM
Who was driving the Boat in Taken?
by TheLastCleric
Feb 6th, 2009
01:16:46 PM
Just came from the theatre...
by StarBlitzer
Feb 6th, 2009
01:33:01 PM
Dissapointed? Who would have guessed?
by uberman
Feb 6th, 2009
01:46:36 PM
So who is this generations Jodie Foster?
by skimn
Feb 6th, 2009
02:16:57 PM
Sequel..
by Harold-Sherbort
Feb 6th, 2009
02:55:10 PM
PUSH 2 :PUSH HARDER
by BMacSmith
Feb 6th, 2009
02:57:39 PM
Push 2: PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT (Starring Rick Ross)
by turketron
Feb 6th, 2009
03:01:37 PM
I LOVED that JUMPER was like a pilot
by Drath
Feb 6th, 2009
03:18:37 PM
Skimn: The answer is Dakota Fanning
by TheGhostWhoLurks
Feb 6th, 2009
03:46:03 PM
Ghost
by skimn
Feb 6th, 2009
04:30:48 PM
Rogue4
by Massawyrm 1
Feb 6th, 2009
06:04:00 PM
Massawyrm 1 & Rogue4
by Mace13
Feb 6th, 2009
06:28:03 PM
spot on review
by antonphd
Feb 6th, 2009
07:32:54 PM
I felt the same way about Lord of the Rings
by Domi'sInnerChild
Feb 6th, 2009
07:33:26 PM
Push is disappointed by MASSAWYRM...
by Leafar the Lost
Feb 6th, 2009
07:40:06 PM
How's the trademark McGUIGAN WALLPAPER?
by Charles Grady
Feb 6th, 2009
07:51:32 PM
Thank you, AICN - MASSA
by BirdMcMonster
Feb 6th, 2009
10:21:37 PM
Highlander would been better off without
by Dingbatty
Feb 7th, 2009
01:51:39 AM
Highlander
by Mr Writer
Feb 7th, 2009
04:53:52 AM
Cancel Heroes; Make Push: The Series
by MrFloppy
Feb 7th, 2009
04:38:50 PM
MrFloppy is correct
by NoodlesHahn
Feb 7th, 2009
05:21:50 PM
Liking Push
by tallsy
Feb 7th, 2009
08:56:24 PM
BIG ASS PLOT HOLE ruined this, and Fanning's hooker outfit
by Drath
Feb 8th, 2009
09:25:23 PM
saw it today with a friend
by The Amazing G
Feb 14th, 2009
01:37:48 AM

Quick Talkback

Please login to post talkback.