"A lion does not feel guilty when it kills a gazelle, right? You do not feel guilty when you squash a fly... And I think that means something. I just think that really means something."
The found footage genre has been done to death in the past five years, so when I heard that yet another one was coming out, I didn't think too much of it. I've always though that the the concept of found footage is very interesting and compelling, but I had also kinda lost hope of ever seeing another film pull it off in a way that seemed realistic, because it's been done so bad so many times as of recent. Thankfully though, when the genre had reached it's lowest low and all hope seemed lost, something came around and changed all that completely.
Chronicle is a movie about three college seniors, who find a meteorite in a cave that gives them super powers. They have a lot of fun with their new found abilities in the beginning, but as they begin to discover just how powerful the skills they've gotten really are, things start to spiral out of control. The main character Andrew (played by Dane Dehaan), is a troubled young man who gets abused by his father. His mother is very sick as well, and on top of that he's being bullied in school. Taking this into consideration, it's not hard to imagine that things start to get out of hand when he suddenly learns telekinesis. Andrew's character development is the main story arc in Chronicle, although the movie also deals with things such as responsibility, friendship, high school popularity and being an outcast as well.
The thing that usually bothers me the most about found footage movies, is that feeling you often get of "Okay, by now a normal person would have turned off the camera!". Thankfully Chronicle deals with this problem very early on in the movie, by having Andrew state that he likes to use the camera as a way to create a barrier between himself and the people around him. He's being portrayed as a very anti social person from the very beginning, so this totally makes sense. Also, when the three boys eventually make their discovery and gain their mystic powers, Andrew begins to levitate the camera and have it follow the boys around, a storytelling decision that probably was made to give the filming crew more freedom than the found footage genre usually allows for. This works out just fine, and Chronicle has some pretty good looking sequences in the latter part of the movie, which is largely because of this freedom that the "levitating camera"-plot provides.
Another thing about Chronicle that struck me early on is how realistic it actually is. Have you ever wondered why Spiderman suddenly feels an incredible sense of responsibility as soon as he gets his super powers? So have I, and it has always seemed a little fishy to me. In Chronicle however, it takes the main character a lot longer to start realizing what it is they're dealing with, and as a result, I got to enjoy about 45 minutes of the coolest shit I've seen in a found footage movie, ever. The guys did all the awesome stuff that everyone has always wanted to do, and I was incredibly entertained by how closely Chronicle depicted how I'd probably use my super powers, if I had any.
Even though it's a movie about super powers, there are three elements in Chronicle that makes it feel oddly realistic. The realistic curve at which the guys learn about their powers and how to deal with them, the great execution of the found footage element and some surprisingly decent performances from all the main actors, when combined, create an authentic and believable reality that makes the movie more exiting than super hero movies normally are. Calling Chronicle a movie about super heroes probably isn't the right way to put it though, seeing as the main character kinda looses his shit from time to time. "Super villain origin movie" is a more fitting title in my opinion.
Having been created on a very low budget, Chronicle sadly lacks a bit in the special effects department. The things that Andrew and his friends do, awesome as they are, often don't look very authentic. Their flying looks down right bad at times, and there are scenes where it's 120 % completely obvious that the actors are acting in front of a greenscreen. Had the budget for the movie been a bit higher, these things would not have looked as fake as they did, and my over all enjoyment of the movie would have been greater. The last 20 minutes of the movie didn't quite get to me either, in that I was not as exited about what was gonna happen next as probably should have been. I'm not saying that this part of the film was bad or anything, I just enjoyed the earlier parts a great deal more.
All in all, Chronicle was a really cool movie that kept me entertained from start to finish. The early parts where the guys are beginning to get a grasp of what they're capable of doing is fantastic, I really enjoyed the chemistry between the actors, and Andrew's character progression was impressive, interesting and quite disturbing at the same time. There are rumours about a possible sequel floating around on the internet, and if they're true, I'll definitely be looking forward to watching said sequel, especially if the special effects budget gets raised a bit. Chronicle is a great movie that covers a lot of great themes when you consider how short it actually is, it's dark and gritty yet still entertaining and exiting, and sometimes even suspenseful. This movie has definitely earned by seal of approval, and I'd be willing to spend some money to buy it on BluRay if the price was low enough as well. (4/6)
Chronicle IMDb page here
Chronicle Trailer here
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