Push

After sitting through several trailers all featuring heavy use of CGI and, by the look of it, mass destruction of various places across the globe, Push came as a refreshing, pleasant surprise. Minimal CGI, location shooting and NO world-famous landmarks being blown up. Admittedly the plot is insanely complicated but the pace is so frenetic that the viewer doesn't have much time to ponder implausibilities (as anyone who has ever watched The Terminator will know, thinking about changing the future can bring on a very bad headache ...) Instead of the glossy sheen of the vast majority of superhero films, Push is gritty and grainy, making a virtue of a low budget. Rather than the expected expansiveness, there's a sense of claustrophobia, with the tightly packed buildings and teeming streets of Hong Kong pressing in on the main characters, just as the agents of Division relentlessly track them down.
Nor does the film make any concessions to the ADD viewer. Pay attention to Cassie's opening voiceover, and watch carefully, and it's not too difficult to follow. The viewer is very much thrown into the middle of a pre-existing world. I liked the fact that Paul McGuigan left the audience to do a bit of work on their own (we have brains, let's use them!) and I'd much rather watch a film that tried to do too much and didn't quite succeed than one that didn't try in the first place. The main thing that carries the viewer through is the thoroughly engaging central relationship between loner Nick and bolshy teenager Cassie. She gatecrashes his life; he starts behaving like her elder brother ("did you lose a bet with your hairdresser?") while getting beaten up by just about everybody he encounters - there are a couple of wince-inducing moments during his fights with Victor, another Mover. Nick's frequently out of his depth but perseveres and as he does, he gains more control over his powers (there's a lovely look of suprise the first time he deflects a bullet) although he never loses that streak of vulnerability. Chris Evans makes him a very human "superhero" which lends a welcome air of uncertainty to the outcome. And did I mention NO silly costumes anywhere in sight ...