Picking up on a genetics program started by the Nazi's, The Division (apparently an arm of the U.S. government) are experimenting with individuals who have psychic abilities to create an army-of-one-trick Jedi. Three prominent variations of genetically enhanced superheroes are "watchers" who can see the future, "movers" who have telekinetic powers and "pushers" who can control minds.

Chris Gant (Chris Evans), a second-generation mover, has been running from The Division ever since they killed his father. Ending up in the slums of Hong Kong, Gant can't avoid a pair of "sniffers" who track him down by smelling his old toothbrush. Convinced that he knows the whereabouts of an escaped pusher, the sniffers search Gant's one-room apartment, but find no trace of the escapee. It isn't long before a young watcher named Cassie (Dakota Fanning) shows up on Gant's doorstep proclaiming that she's seen a future where the two of them score a lot of money, and the only hitch is they have to find the escapee before The Division or local chapter of the Chinese superhero street gang get their hands on her.

I love a good science fiction film, but they are few and far between. "Push" doesn't lack ideas; some of them are even intriguing, but ultimately those ideas aren't nearly as clever as the filmmakers seem to believe. Setting the film in a Hong Kong, dressed it in the visual style of "Blade Runner" and "The Dark Knight" which isn't a bad start, but a great environment doesn't add up to a phenomenal film. Evan's performance is too flat to sustain a leading role and Fanning is unable to capture the world-wise Natalie Portman circa "The Professional" that her character requires.

The tone of the film is uneven. One moment we're edging towards something dark and brooding, then suddenly we're dropped into "Kung Fu Hustle" as the Chinese street gang's loud-screaming-enhanced hoodlums bring a street market to its knees (with enough over acting that you'd think Godzilla had abandoned Japan to take on China).

The pacing is highly erratic. It's simply too slow to be an action film and not smart enough to be psychologically engaging. Yes, there are some nice action moments but often they reach a point where logic is completely abandoned.

The "rules" seem to have been made up as they went along. Various characters with surprisingly convenient powers often appear out of nowhere and results in a mass of woefully underdeveloped characters who are forced into prominent roles. The twists, and there are many, aren't shockingly brilliant and the result is the film ends anticlimactically.

Frankly "Push" doesn't seem to know what it wants to be other than a film with comparisons to commercially successful products like "The Matrix" and television's "Heroes." That might get you a successful opening weekend, but ultimately it doesn't carve out a legacy worth remembering.