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Push: Pushing the Boundaries of Realism
Why the movie Push overstepped the bounds of its own rules.
The movie Push came out a few days ago, and it’s full of eye candy. It has neat special effects, and a sprawling plot. It also does not take itself seriously.
When someone is very physically strong, you want to introduce this rule by showing him repeatedly doing feats of strength, such as bench pressing hundreds of pounds. Then at the finale, when he picks up a car, even if it might be ridiculous for anyone else, it’s at least within the “rules” set for this character.
The Matrix pulls this off wonderfully. The extraordinary rules are set forth by the dialog of Morpheus. They are displayed by showing Agent Smith punch through brick walls, and by Trinity jumping from roofs spanning streets. The rules of the world are that people with the correct knowledge can do impossible things. Then, when Trinity and Neo do the lobby scene, complete with cartwheels, high jumps, and non-stop machine guns, this does not come off as silly, but as something well-within the boundaries the incredible world they live in.
This may be a sort of a spoiler, but here we go. “Push does not follow it’s own rules.”
When you want to have a mindblowing revelation in your movie, do not put that mind blowing revelation in the form of, “Just kidding.” When you say the world is actually a certain way, even if it means there are dragons and aliens and whatnot, stick to the story. Don’t just have the hero’s dragon be a dream he has when he’s semi-delusional/psychotic.
I’m not going to bash the storyline of Push any more than I have to, and some people may find it quite entertaining. It’s just that if I’m going to watch Star Wars I know that light sabers cut through darn near everything, and that fact is not going to change in the third movie.
