Before Marvel, Chris Evans Starred In A Forgotten Sci-Fi Movie With Dakota Fanning

To think of Chris Evans in a superhero role is to picture him throwing a star-spangled frisbee at evil-doers as Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Between those stints as notable superheroes, though, Evans appeared in a sci-fi action movie that packed a similar punch to the "X-Men" movies, even though it had no affiliation with them.

Directed by Paul McGuigan, "Push" starred Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, and Djimon Hounsou. Set in a world where people have different psychic and telekinetic abilities, Evans plays a telekinetic "Pusher" named Nick Grant, tasked with protecting a "Watcher" (someone who can see into the future) named Cassie (Dakota Fanning). Together, they work to bring down a shady government operation that steals powers and turns them into a drug to create a new form of super soldier.

If it sounds like a mish-mash of comic book movies you've heard before, that's because "Push" has no shame in being exactly that. Released only a year after "Iron Man," when comic book movies were on the rise, "Push" unfortunately couldn't quite break the genre like other movies of that era, becoming a massive misfire with critics and general audiences alike. A shame really, given that it was clearly making a great effort to build a world that we'd never really return to. 

Earning a disappointing $48.9 million against a $38 million production budget, "Push," even with its creative fight sequences and set pieces, didn't bring anything new to the table that critics hadn't seen before. As Guigan's lowest-rated project on Rotten Tomatoes, with only 23% on the review aggregator, The Independent said that "'Push' can't erase the memory of all the things it has copied: 'X-Men,' 'Heroes'; even last year's 'Jumper' felt more original than this." The late Roger Ebert wrote that "Push has vibrant cinematography and decent acting, but I'm blasted if I know what it's about."

Thankfully, even if the film didn't leave much of a lasting mark on the genre it was trying to contribute to, its stars went on to bring more comic book characters to life elsewhere. Two years after "Push," Chris Evans would take on the role of Steve Rogers in "Captain America: The First Avenger," while Djimon Hounsou would inhabit all manner of heroes and villains appearing in the likes of "Guardians of the Galaxy" and then later, DC's "Shazam!" and "Aquaman."

As for the legacy of "Push," it remains a forgotten film that looks great but does little more than what it already did, or what other, more established franchises would explore in a better fashion. We don't want to call it just yet, but we've a feeling that after reprising his role as the Fantastic Four's Johnny Storm in "Deadpool & Wolverine" and returning to the MCU in "Avengers: Doomsday," the chances of him getting back in action as Nick from "Push" seem pretty unlikely.