By snoadmin
Human emotion can be a dangerous thing. That’s why it’s surprising that in most movies, people who are given superpowers are able to keep themselves from losing control. In Josh Trank’s debut film “Chronicle,” he shows viewers that not all humans would be able to handle limitless power.
Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is a shy high school teenager in Washington who starts to film everything in his life when he finds an old camera. He is not very popular and his only real friend is his cousin Matt (Alex Russell), who drives him to school. After Matt drags Andrew to a party in a barn, they meet up with Steve (Michael B. Jordan), the very popular school jock, and find a hole in the ground that leads to a strange glowing rock.
What happens underground is never really explained, due to the “found footage” nature of the film, which only allows the audience to see what Andrew is filming. After the incident, Andrew, Matt and Steve are given telekinetic powers, which they use to play pranks on people. The more they use the powers, the more powerful they become.
This film accomplishes what the 2008 film “Hancock” couldn’t, by showing what would happen if a person had superpowers but had no interest in being a hero. Using the powers to save people never really crosses these kids’ minds like it usually would in a film like this. Instead, the powers help to build their friendship with each other, and to make Andrew feel like he belongs.
The film does an interesting job exploring the character of Andrew, even though he spends most of the film behind the camera. Viewers see a lot of Andrew’s upsetting home life. He has a drunk and abusive father, and his mother is deathly ill. Without any money to pay for his mother’s medication, the situation worsens.
The “found footage” genre is a fairly new one. The first mainstream found footage film was the 1999 horror film “The Blair Witch Project.” In recent years, films like “Cloverfield” and “Paranormal Activity” have almost run the gimmick into the ground. The problem with this genre is that it requires the characters to constantly justify the fact that they never put down the camera. In “Chronicle” this usually works. However, there are a few instances where it becomes distracting.
The worst example of this is the character of Casey (Ashley Hinshaw), Matt’s love interest. She also conveniently films everything in her life. Her explanation is that it’s for her blog, but in reality it’s clearly just an excuse to have a camera on Matt when Andrew isn’t in the scene.
Despite these small problems, the film really starts to find its footing in the third act when things start to go wrong. The finale of the film is spectacular to watch, and the found footage aspect is used incredibly well, jumping from security cameras to camera phones and news helicopters. It is thrilling to see the finale of a superhero film through the eyes of the spectators, and it emphasizes the actual destruction that is going on around the characters.
“Chronicle” is an exciting and surprising entry into the superhero genre. After a year of disappointing to mediocre Marvel superhero films, it is refreshing to see something innovative with the idea of superpowers. Even through its science fiction premise, the film manages to depict a fairly accurate version of modern teenage life, and how a young person can feel alone even when he has friends.
