As the newest member of the ordinary-people-with-powers sub-genre, Push is neither as fluidly directed as the first two X-Men movies nor as compelling as TV’s Heroes was in its prime, but it proves to be solid sci-fi entertainment just the same thanks to an interesting setting, a judicious use of effects and a cast of sort-of-familiar faces.

In a nutshell, it revolves around the efforts of an off-the-grid telekinetic (Chris Evans) and a teen clairvoyant (Dakota Fanning) to find a syringe full of an ability-enhancing drug created by a covert U.S. government agency run by a ruthless agent (Djimon Hounsou) who wants the thing back after it’s stolen by a girl (Camilla Belle) who was injected with the stuff. Psychic-powered Asians are also involved.

I admittedly didn’t care for the film when I saw it in theaters in February. It didn’t have enough action or effects and it felt too slow. I thought it was boring. Most of all, though, it wasn’t Jumper, the nifty Hayden Christensen adventure that had opened around the same time last year and also sported a title that promised sci-fi fun.

But after seeing it a second time, I found I didn’t mind the deliberate pace or the low-key performances or the distinct lack of fireballs, and that I liked the lively Hong Kong backdrop and the way Scottish director Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin) lit the film in blue-greens and reds and oranges to make it feel like a live-action comic book.

Also, says the little boy in me, I thought the assorted abilities were really cool. I wanted to be able to push thoughts into people’s minds, to convince people that a piece of paper was actually money or that a black suitcase was really red, to make people’s ears bleed (and fish explode) with high-pitched sonic screams and to heal people with just a touch.

If I could only choose one, though, it would have to be the telekinetic talents of Evans and a nattily-attired agency bodyguard, whose fantastic fights with Evans rep the movie’s high points. The two fling each other around like rag dolls, deflect bullets, levitate guns, land punches without even touching each other and chuck Chinese soldiers through bamboo scaffolding and huge plates of orange glass.

The cast overall does its job, even if the performances don’t pop like they should. Evans had more, um, fire as Johnny Storm in the Fantastic 4 films, Hounsou isn’t mean enough and Belle (10,000 B.C.) is mostly just easy on the eyes. Better are Cliff Curtis (Sunshine) as the guy who can do the paper-money thing and Maggie Siff (TV’s Mad Men) as the healer, both of whom, coincidentally, have accents.

As for 15-year-old Fanning, I know she wants more mature roles, but here she comes off like an annoying little sister who you wish would just shut up about the future already. And the sight of her drunk is a little unsettling. But at least her rivalry with a fellow clairvoyant (Xiaolu Li) is interesting, not to mention unintentionally funny, as the woman frequently tells the teen that she knows when the girl will die. – [DVD]

Sci-Fi/Thriller

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 7/7/09

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