Chronicle

Were currently living in the age of the Super Hero movie. Just about everything is trying to get a piece of that hero pie. Which is why I took a look back at a low budge super hero movie from 2012 and see if I still like today, and it deserves to be in my Top 20.

Chronicle (2012) 98 minutes

Chronicle tells the story of three teenage boys who find a hole in the ground, and when they go down the hole they then gain the power of telekinesis. The rest of the movie is them finding out how the powers they got work and strengthen their power. How to use them without being found out, and not harming people.

There aren’t a lot of characters in this movie, so its easy to keep track. Our main character is Andrew (Dane DeHaan) who is the first to really test the limits of his powers, and then goes from, outsider, to boy with friends, to supervillain. Like most good villains, who aren’t just evil for the sake of evil. Andrew has an drunk and abusive dad, and a dying mother. As well as being picked on at school, it’s safe to say that he has had the deck stacked against him. While other two characters Steve (Michael B Jordan) is most popular guy at school, and Matt (Alex Russell) Andrew’s cousin, are just having fun being chill and messing about, but things don’t got as smoothly.

Overall I want to say I like this film. I like that is a found footage film, which I think benefits the story. We don’t get a lot of subplots, or scene’s with characters who don’t effect the main story. As there is a time jump between the characters getting their powers, and when we see them again. As the camera is lost, and then continued on a new one. As I previous mentioned the character count is kept low because of it. Everyone we see in the movie serves some kind of purpose. Wither that be foil or antagonist.

The crux of the store is based on the friendship the three main characters have, which I personally find believable. As I can remember when you would just hang out with your friends and do stupid stuff. Add in the video camera, I can totally relate. That is why it doesn’t surprise me the three leads were made to live together to be friends, as it does really show up on screen. Which if it didn’t work it really would stand out, it would make the film seem a little odd.

There are some nice elements to the film that are there to help the audience as to what is going on. As there is an explanation as to what telekinesis is, which isn’t really there for the character’s, just there to help thought who don’t know what it is. While there is a reference to hubris, and the film directly points out Andrew’s downfall. Which then happens to be the turning point in the movie.

However, I don’t like everything in this movie. The CGI and green screen is really obvious in places. Such as the scene with the baseball. While the idea of the found footage model is fine, but when there are scenes that use other camera’s don’t make sense. Which is a big issue with the end of the movie, as a the last action scene is done using so many different cameras that are soon discarded, so how was the footage found? Also how can some it be found when the party and everything after it would have been lost, as the camera was left in the whole they couldn’t return to. Maybe I think too much in the logic of the situation, but to me very much feels like an error.

Also what did notice, there is no score to the film. It is all just dialogue, and music from parties and out natural outlets. Which is nice as helps with the found footage aspect, just helps points out flaws in the logic. As well as I do apricate the camera work, as a lot of it does look like its filmed by hand, by one the characters, and then because they can make things move with their minds, helps set up a more traditional shots. Which is nice to get an explanation as why the camera is suddenly moving, or why all three characters are on screen.

Overall I would say if you’re getting sick of the big budget super hero movies, I would give this a try if you’ve never seen it. It’s one of very few non DC or Marvel super hero movies that is good, and deserves all the praise it got, and still could get. It’s just a shame the director’s next movie was far from fantastic.

Xo FabEs