Random Movie: Chronicle (2012)

Honestly, I don't think I even know of this film before it came out in theaters a few weeks ago and I certainly had no desire to see it. Strangely though, Chronicle received so many positive reviews (85% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.6 on IMDb) that I thought I would be remiss without seeing it, especially as I had a free movie ticket burning a hole in my pocket. If all you know about it is "superhero found footage film" then stop now and go see it. I can almost guarantee you won't be disappointed.

I suppose this was somewhat covered in X-Men: First Class (though honestly I don't remember how much), but the film's main angle is 'what would you do if you had super powers?' For Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Matt (Alex Russell), and Steve (Michael B. Jordan), the first answer is to fool around with it, all for fun and games of course. After their chance encounter with an odd foreign object, the trio develops the power of telekinesis and quickly use it to beam each other in the head with chance curveballs, construct Lego towers with no hands, and naturally learn to fly. Yet, as they become more in control of their abilities, tensions begin to rise leading to some rather unexpected turns in the story.

I had no real expectations for this before walking into the theater and even being mostly in the dark about the premise turned out to be a good thing. The first two-thirds of the film work well as a found footage story since the actors are not easily placed (other than that DeHaan looks freakishly like a young Leonardo DiCaprio) and have a comfortable demeanor with each other, mostly while the three are still high on their discovery and just having some dumb fun. It is hard not to feel some excitement when they learn to fly and get anxious when a few of the early stunts go awry.

Most everything in the story is well-established and played out with main exception being one of the boys' sudden transformation from shy, awkward kid to dangerous superpower wielding psychopath. That part worked but it had very little foreshadowing or build up making the change feel forced. The majority of it though was spot on thanks to writer Max Landis (yep, of relation to John) who effectively taps into the well of angst and adolescence which made me both nostalgic and loathsome of my high school days.

First-time director Josh Trank brings the great story and superb acting together nicely in a package that moves fast without feeling rushed and embraces the genuine feel of a typical found footage tale but with some trickery to eliminate boring shots as Andrew's consumer camera levitates to give us somewhat cheesy, but pretty impactful shots. The found footage aspect though is hastily dropped toward the end though as multitudes of cell phones, tablets, and news videos are cut together to get a large picture of the destruction. Sadly, this detracts from the otherwise powerful finale as you are missing the personal element of Andrew and his friends shooting that permeates the rest of the film.

While the story would have been great even shot conventionally, having Andrew (mostly) manning the camera as he interacts with his friends, his alcoholic father, or his dying mother carries more heart and feeling than the traditional method would. Regardless of my somewhat minor quibbles about it, Chronicle is an unexpectedly awesome film.