A Mind is a Powerful Thing to Waste (Telekinesis Movies)

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nDirector: Brian De Palma (1978)

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nComments: In many ways, this film feels kind of like a “serious” version of the X-Men. Why? Well, it has many similarities with the X-Men universe. The Fury is about these kids who develop these telekinetic powers. The government wants to exploit them for military purposes so they gather all these special kids in this special mansion. Problem is, these kids don’t want to be exploited, what they want is to be left alone. Again De Palma explores the themes he explored in Carrie. Namely, teenagers with telekinetic powers! In my opinion, the film should have dived a bit further into the horror aspect of things, as it is; it also has elements of a spy thriller, with the kids hiding away from the government. By far, the most exciting moments are the last 30 minutes, with Kirk Douglas going into the mansion searching for his rebellious son; whose telekinetic powers have driven him insane. 

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nDisplay of Telekinetic ability: When one of the teenagers goes rebel and wants out of the whole project, his father goes looking for him through the mansion, searching all the different rooms for him. When dad walks into a room, he doesn’t know it but his kid is hovering in the air in the darkness, in silence.

nTitle: Scanners (1981)
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nDirector: Richard Franklin 

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nComments: Patrick is a young man who is lying comatose in a hospital bed. You see, the poor bloke went comatose after he killed his horrible parents on a telekinetic tantrum. Doctors are using him to conduct a series of experiments on what happens between life and death. But Patrick isn’t as comatose as they think! He can communicate with his favorite nurse through a typewriter! Patrick’s has secretly fallen in love with the cute nurse who takes care of him in the hospital. Patrick is ready to do anything to be together with her…forever! This is an Australian film, but strangely enough, the Italians made a cheap ass sleazy sequel to this movie called Patrick Still Lives! (1980) All I have to say about that is, if you like your Telekinetic movies with lots of tits and ass, then look no further than this cheesy Italian rip off/sequel that has no connection whatsoever to the original. 

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Ability: When an abusive doctor keeps trying to perform all sorts of twisted experiments on Patrick, Patrick uses his telekinetic abilities to stop him by throwing a potted plant at him, then pushing him against a wall, opening the door and the hurling the doctor out of the room and into the hallway, all with the power of his mind!

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nDirector: Ken Shapiro 

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nComments: Well, this isn’t one of Chevy Chase’s worst comedies. But it also isn’t his best. It’s kind of a so-so Chevy Chase film. That this films director never did another film can be an indication of how well this movie was received. Still, the premise is fun. Chevy Chase gets powers! And he uses them to mess with his ex-girlfriends suitors! Watch Chevy Chase cause a guy to have a massive nose bleed! Watch Chevy cause an opera dancers crotch to grow way out of proportion! It’s all very symbolic for how extreme jealousy can be an evil thing. Cause even when Chevy gets his girl to come back with him (because he made all her dates lives impossible) he’s still jealous, and his jealousy causes him to do very evil things. That’s when the movie becomes most interesting to me, when Max powers come to full circle and he starts doing all these crazy telekinetic related things, cheesy special effects get shifted into full gear during the last few minutes and it becomes entertaining. Thing about this movie is that it has a lot of goofs! You can see cameras, shadows, visible equipment and the boom mike on numerous occasions! The fx aren’t all that great, but they have that cheesy 1980s charm. Id recommend this movie only to Chevy Chase fans (like myself) or to people who like off the wall straight up weird movies. 

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Ability: When the superstitious maid of the house believes that Chevy Chase is possessed by demons, she throws this white “magic” powder in the ground which she thinks will scare away any evil demons that might try and come close to her. Chevy Chase has gone crazy with his telekinetic abilities and uses them to snort all the white “magic” powder from the floor as if it was cocaine!P.S.: Chevy Chase almost died while making this movie! In a dream sequence in which Chase is supposed to be an airplane with landing lights flying through the skies, one of the landing lights short circuited and gave Chevy Chase a massive electro shock that almost caused his death!

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nDirector: Mark L. Lester

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nComments: In the realm of telekinetic movies there’s a little corner reserved for Pyrokinetic films. These are movies in which people control fire with the power of their minds. Firestarter is one such film. Based on Stephen Kings story, Id say that this was an enjoyable King flick. Drew Barrymore’s characters plays out like a more powerful Carrie. It’s like taking Carrie out of the high school setting and putting her up against the evil government agency looking to exploit her powers. This movie has an outstanding cast. Barrymore herself does a fine job as the titular Firestarter, when she goes berserk, all hell breaks loose. Loved those effects where she generates these fire balls to blow up the evil guys. We get Martin Sheen playing the guy in charge of the government division interested in Barrymore’s powers, and finally, we get the great George C. Scott playing an evil and sadistic bounty hunter that the government employs to capture the firestarters. Decent movie, sometimes I couldn’t help and get that made for tv movie feel to it, very 80s, but the movie always picks up whenever Barrymore starts spewing fireballs at the bad guys.

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nDisplay of Telekenetic Ability: When Barrymore and her dad decide to hide in a farm, the owners of the farm realize Barrymore has fire powers because she melts the bar of butter! With the power of her mind!

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nDirector: Roland Emerich

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nComments: Ten year old Joey has just lost his father in death and is learning slowly to deal with it. Along the process of mourning, Joey discovers he has telekinetic abilities! He moves a glass of milk across the dinner table to his mother’s horror! He makes his toys comes to life! One day, he wonders into an old house and discovers an old ventriloquist dummy, which actually talks to him! Is this dummy good or evil? What does it want with Joey? I remember watching this movie as a little kid and liking it, but not entirely. Even at that tender age (I was just ten) I recognized Making Contact was just trying to be a cheap imitation of E.T. It’s got that ‘jee wheez I’m a kid from the suburbs’ feel to it, just like your typical early Spielberg movies. Some scenes are completely swiped from E.T., like that scene where the evil scientist comes to get Joey to experiment and explore his telekinetic abilities! But the film also has a mild horror tone to it with the whole evil talking ventriloquist dummy. In one particular ‘scary’ scene, the kid talks to his dead father through a toy phone! I wonder if he ever crossed lines with Caroline from the Poltergeist movies? So in essence, Id say this movie feels like a strange mix between E.T. and Poltergeist. Making Contact (also known as Joey in some markets) was directed by mega budget-summer tent pole shit fest director Roland Emmerich. This was way back in the day when Emmerich was just a Spielberg imitator. Heck if you ask me he still is, just not a very good one. Guy has lost all my respect (10,000 B.C. What the hell was that all about man??!!) This film represents Emmerich’s humble origins, back before he was making big budget shit films for the masses.

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Abilities: When Joey decides to impress a girl at school, he goes all out telekinetic and makes a ruler float in the air. Then he makes a hard boiled egg (straight out of the lunch box) roll over the ruler like a bridge. Then, he wiggles the little girls pony tails….all with the power of his mind!

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nDirector: Willard Huyck

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nComments: A scientific experiment gone wrong brings a midget duck from “duckworld” to earth. His name is Howard the Duck. Once here, he has to find a way to get back home. Unfortunately, the same machine that brought him home is the same machine that’s bringing some demons down from another dimension, demons hell bent on destroying the earth. Before going home, Howard decides to save the earth. I know this movie has always been on many critics “worst films ever made” list and whatever, but I’ve always been a huge fan of it. Along with Cutthroat Island (another flop that I find entertaining) Howard the Duck was one of the most expensive turkeys ever. People didn’t know what to make of it. Was it a kid’s film as the premise and main character might imply? I mean its a movie about a talking midget duck, it has to be for kids right? Well, not exactly, the film has Howard the Duck about to have sex with a human female, he smokes cigars, he watches the duckworld equivalent of Playboy (called PlayDuck) and there’s even female duck nudity. So it was definitely a film made for adults. A dark comedy. But I guess that confusion doomed the film from the start.

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nSo anyhows, box office losses aside this movie is good silly fun. I love how out there it is. I mean come on, a duckworld? That’s fucking nuts! Darkoverlords of the Universe coming to destroy us? Love that shit! And to top things off, the Darkoverlords of the Universe have telekinetic abilities. Jeffrey Jones who plays a Darkoverlord, goes crazy powerful and starts hurling people around and making things fly, great 80s visual effects. Speaking of special fx, this movie has lots of them. The Darkoverlord is hurling power left and right making shit blow up, and when the Darkoverlord shows its true form its thanks to Phil Tippets awesome stop motion animation. Lea Thompson’s looking all kinds of hot in an 80’s kind of way. Of special interest as well is the fact that this was one of Tim Robbins first film roles.

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Ability: When Dr. Jennings is possessed by the Darkoverlord of the Universe he gains telekinetic powers. So in one cool sequence, all the people in a small restaurant have captured Howard and are about to chop him up into little pieces with a meat cleaver, suddenly, Dr. Jennings makes the meat cleaver fly through the air and frees Howard from his bonds. Then he proceeds to destroy the restaurant with the power of his mind!

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nDirector: Mel Brooks

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nComments: On this spoof of the Star Wars franchise the evil Spacesball’s are trying to take over Planet Druidia. You see, the greedy all consuming people of planet Spaceball have almost used up all their air, so they plan on stealing 10.000 years of fresh air from Planet Druidia. It’s up to Lone Star and Barf to stop them, with the help of Yogurt The Wise and The Schwartz! In my opinion, Spaceballs is one of Mel Brooks best films, right up there with Young Frankenstein in terms of laughs. And that’s saying a lot!

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Abilities: In one scene, Lonestar uses the Schwartz (thats Mel Brook’s equivalent for the force) to turn off a giant spaceship (shaped like a giant maid with a vacuum cleaner) that’s sucking the air away from Planet Druidia. He manages to successfully turn the switch from suck to blow! All with the power of his mind!

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nDirector: Armand Mastroiani 

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nComments: Little Cameron is gifted. He’s got telekinetic powers! Cameron’s dad is a scientist who has been studying Cameron and conducting experiments on him. Just to see what makes his Telekinetic abilities tick. One day, an invisible force kills Cameron’s dad! Was it Cameron himself who did it? Or is there some evil invisible force at work here? So this movie is not that bad at all. It feels harmless, kind of in the same way that The Gate is harmless. You know, kind of scary, kind of silly, basically, your typical 80s horror flick. This movie made me laugh a couple of times with its telekinesis, which basically consisted (on more then one occasion) of the old trick of putting the footage on reverse. This film was made during the time when religious horror films where still considered scary. So you get demons and invisible forces attacking people. This movie is actually a bit like taking Poltergeist, The Exorcist and Carrie and juggling them all together. It’s got the little kid with the powers (Poltergeist) it’s got the evil demon in a statue thing (The Exorcist) and it’s got the Telekinesis (Carrie). It also feels like a cheesy episode of an 80s cop show with this detective investigating the whole thing. Not a bad little movie, the kind of horror movie you’d show to your little brother or something. On the plus side, Carlo Rambaldi, the special effects guy who created E.T. and some of the creatures in Dune and Alien, did the creature effects here. Though if you ask me, Id say the guy lost his touch. Or he didn’t get paid very well on this particular gig. One or the other. The reason I say this is because the monster is all kinds of cheesy! Sorry Mr. Carlo Rambaldi, but your monster on this movie was mediocre.

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Ability: In one scene, Cameron gets so angry at his mothers boyfriend that he blasts him out the window and onto the front of the house (effectively killing him) all with the power of his mind!

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nDirector: Katsuhiro Otomo

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nComments: Akira is a film about a boy named Tetsuo. Like many of these telekinesis movies, Tetsuo, the main character is stumped on by all his peers. Everybody treats him like crap. That is until one day he starts developing Telekinetic abilities! Then, when Tetsuo manages to harness these powers, its time for payback! I always thought this film was an allegory for loss of control in ones life. When we can do whatever we want, will we end up doing what is right? Or let power consume us and devour us like some giant monster would? 

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Ability: Tetsuo uses his telekinetic ability to control a satellite hovering out in space. He makes the satellite shoot a powerful laser beam directly from space in order to destroy his enemies!

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nDirector: Brett Leonard

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nComments: This is the story of Jobe. A mentally challenged gardener who is up for an upgrade of his brain! Doctor Angelo is looking to make Jobe smarter through a series of experiments that deal with Virtual Reality. Once Jobe is connected to the Virtual Reality machine, this opens up his brain and suddenly he is not mentally challenged anymore. In fact, his intellect might actually surpass that of Dr. Angelo’s! Soon Jobe becomes obsessed with the virtual world. So much so that he wants to transport himself entirely onto the computer. I remember that when this film came out, the computer effects were considered mind blowing, but unfortunately, by today’s standards, they are no better then a video game, actually, the graphics are worse then any video game. But the film is entertaining anyways. This movie is not as good as I remembered it last time I saw it, but it has its merits. 

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Ability: Once Jobs powers begin to grow, he no longer needs to push his lawnmower to cut the grass, the machine does it on its own. Of course with a little push from Job’s telekinetic abilities!

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nDirector: Clive Barker 

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nSynopsis: Basically this is the story of Swan, a famous illusionist somewhere along the lines of David Blaine or David Copperfield. During the 70’s Swan belonged to a cult of religious freaks who worshipped an all powerful magician known as Nix, the leader of the cult. Swan and a couple of other followers decide they don’t want to be a part of Nix’s cult anymore, so they trap him and bury him alive so that his evil could not spread through the world. Problem is, Nix’s followers want him back! And they are stopping at nothing to avenge his death! Will his followers resuscitate Nix and his evil ways? Will Nix want Swan by his side when he does? I love this movie to death. In my opinion, it is Clive Barker’s finest hour as a director. I find this movie terrifying because of the way the villain is portrayed. Nix is one all powerful evil bastard! It’s a bonus to have this character played with such evil glee by Daniel Von Bargen, who out does himself with the role. What I like about this movie is how it turns magic and telekinesis real. In my opinion, Barker successfully merged noir with horror. 

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nDisplay of Telekinetic abilities: Nix, the all powerful religious leader makes it rain inside of a room. His followers start to play in the mud that starts to form on the floor, marveled at the miracle that has just occurred before their eyes! Then, in a twisted turn of fate, Nix makes the sun come out (inside of a room) and his followers are burned to a crisp.

nDirector: Victor Salva 

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nComments: This movie is about a kid who is born albino. Not only does he have absolutely no pigmentation in his body, but he also has an incredible intellect, great sensibility and telekinetic powers! He has been locked in a basement by his family for years, until somebody finds him and unleashes him to the horrors of going to high school and having to socialize. Can this world accept Powder for who he is? Basically, this movie was directed by Victor Salva, the guy responsible for the Jeepers Creepers movies. You know, they guy who loves to put shirtless teenage boys in his movies because it turns him on. Anyway, the directors sexual preferences aside, this movie is actually his best work.

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Ability: Powder makes every single spoon, knife and fork in the school cafeteria fly through the air and form a column on the table that he is having lunch in.

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nDirector: Alex Proyas 

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nComments: John Murdock wakes up in a strange city. His memory isn’t quite clear, he really doesn’t know what’s going on. He finds himself living in a lonely, dark city with no people in it! Everything appears to be frozen in time when the clock hits Midnight! He is confused, but he follows clues to discover who he really is. Little by little he realizes things are not exactly what they seem! The city he lives in (the titular “Dark City“) is a city eternally engulfed in night. And the buildings shift forms from time to time! What the hell is going on? And who’s doing this? And who are those guys dressed in black that are following him around? So for me this movie is one of the top science fiction films ever. It’s a film engulfed in noir, in darkness. It has that feeling of uncertainty to it. Plus we have that mystery surrounding the transforming city. Those images involving the buildings shifting positions and shapes….and the final encounter with the strange beings causing it are some of the things that make this one a favorite of mine. It’s the power of the mind which causes these shifts in ideas and situations, I loved that idea. The idea that we are the shapers of our own futures, our own destinies is one of the themes that permeates this film. The idea that we can go against the powers that be to create and shape our own. Highly recommended for lovers of gothic dark films. 

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nDisplay of Telekinetic ability: In a cataclysmic battle, John Murdoch goes up against The Strangers in a telekinetic battle to the bitter end! Mental blasts, knives flying through the air….telekinesis gone awry! Awesome stuff!

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nDirector: Katt Shea

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nComments: Didn’t really hate this “sequel” but I didn’t really love it either. It basically plays out more like a lousy remake then a straight sequel. Nothing really new explored here, its just a girl with telekinetic powers, slightly grungier, more suicidal, less dorky then the original Carrie was. So when the rich kids make fun of her, she goes all crazy and starts killing them with her telekinesis in sometimes, sometimes not creative ways. 

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nDisplay of Telekinetic ability: When Carrie goes on her telekinetic killing spree and uses a harpoon gun to harpoon some guys genitals. You actually see the guys testicles floating in the pool at one point!

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nDirector: Shuseke Kaneko

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nComments: A little pyrokinetic girl looses control of her powers and accidentally kills a person who is attacking her. She bursts his body into flames. After this, she feels guilty and vows never to use her pyrokinetic powers again. Soon she grows up and is leading a quite reclusive life, until she falls in love with a co-worker. She soon finds out her new loves sister has been killed by a crew of violent teenagers trying to make a snuff film. She soon looses control of her powers in search for revenge. This movie has a similar premise to Firestarter, mixed with elements from Scanners. You know, the little girl with pyrokinetic powers. She tries to hold these powers in control so she won’t hurt anyone. But then this movie takes a turn and turns into a film about the same little girl, only all grown up and using her powers to fight the evil in the world, kind of like a vigilante. The fire effects are pretty cool, specially those dealing with the girl making the bad guys burst in flame. 

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nDisplay of Pyrokinetic Ability: Yuko spots one of the teenagers who was filming the snuff movie, so she decides to exact revenge upon him by lighting him up in flames right smack in the middle of a public park! Too bad her new boyfriend’s conscience kicks in and stops her from completely burning him alive.

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nDirector: McGuigan

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nComments: What a lifeless movie. Nowadays, they keep doing this thing where they make movies with not too much information, keeping stuff from you so they will have a bit more to show you on the future sequels that they have plans for, but have no idea if they will ever get to make. It’s as if they are taking for granted that their film is going to be a huge hit, so they make a film that doesn’t give you the whole scope of things. It only tells you half of the story, as a result, you get a movie that you feel is half assed. It’s missing something. 

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nThat’s my main problem with movies like this one. Sometimes they’ll dampen the characters powers down somehow. Evil Hollywood ploy so they wont have to spend big money on special effects and destruction? Most probably, but damn, at least by the films final half you expect to be compensated with a decent semi spectacular ending, but this movie has no such thing. I was waiting for the big finale, but it just didn’t happen. It never came. Specially considering that the movie centers around a drug that can supposedly augment your powers, I was expecting a scene where Chris Evans telekinetic powers were going to go bat shit insane and he was gonna destroy everything in sight. It’s funny because one of the films posters has Evans throwing a car through the air…yet this never happens through out the movie! All he uses his powers for is apparently carrying guns through the air. The movie is pussy in the biggest way possible, it shy’s away from anything too over the top. And that’s exactly why I hated it. Its safe Hollywood crap. No edge. And not a moment of awesomeness. Barf. Such a boring lifeless film! When you watch PUSH, you feel like you are watching the simplest kind of movie. The good guys with powers vs. the bad guys with powers. Now if there was some using of these powers in cool and spectacular ways I don’t think I would have a problem with it. I wouldn’t mind seeing powerful dudes and gals blowing shit up and hurling each other through the air. But what the hell happened with this movie? It’s boring as hell! Let me put it this way, if you want to see a movie about Dakota Fanning drawing pictures, then watch this movie! According to the movie, Dakota is a watcher, one who can see the future. So what does she do? She draws what she sees and then watches it all come true. Unfortunately wed already seen that in a character from Heroes. Which brings me to my next point, this movie is like mixing the premise for Heroes and X-Men and throwing in a little bit of Firestarter in the mix with the whole evil government coming after them scenario. Only boring. 

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nDisplay of Telekinetic Ability: When Chris Evans is going to confront the villains in the movie, he takes two guns and uses his telekinetic powers to move the guns through the air without the bad guys noticing until he has them at gun point. Then he has a shoot out, but with the guns traveling through the air, while another telekinetic does the same against him. The only cool sequence in the whole film swears to god.

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nDirector: Zack Snyder

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nComments: The world is on the brink of nuclear meltdown and society is going berzerk! At the same time, somebody is killing off Americas’ most recognized heroes. The Watchmen. Who is killing them and for what purpose? This movie was all I wanted it to be. A faithful adaptation of the graphic novel which took very few artistic liberties and made minor changes to the story. Rorsharch kicked ass. The Comedian was awesomely evil. And finally, my favorite part, Dr. Manhattan. He is the most enigmatic one of the group, this god-like being can do anything that pops in his head! Which includes teletransportation, telekinesis and mind reading.

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nAwesome display of telekinetic ability: When Dr. Manhattan is displaying his telekinetic abilities to the military people, he picks up an entire tank and squashes it with the power of his mind.

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