Chronicle (2012)

Chronicles (2012)

7/10

Starring:
Dane DeHaan
Michael B. Jordan
Michael Kelly
Alex Russell

Directed by Josh Trank

With great power... comes great irresponsibility

Chronicle could have been far better if we knew the cast, but the fact that we didn’t made it excellent.

It may sound contradictory, but the movie itself is full of the contradictions of life.

In any case or scenario that we’ve seen Hollywood depict, the guy being bullied or the school clown always later rises above everything and everyone to become a hero.

The rejected stone becomes the chief cornerstone kind of stuff.

Here in Chronicle, he (i.e. the bullied) rose above everyone, and his story arc shifted from protagonist to antagonist, all within the first 30 minutes of the movie.

The plot is about three high school students who found a hole that led to a remarkable discovery. This discovery had its side effects as they started developing uncanny powers, telekinetic.

They start to learn to control their abilities and start to use them to their advantage and also use them to play tricks on people.

Then their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to emerge, leading to the whole movie you’re about to go watch.

Well, much has to be said for Chronicle, and a lot of kudos to the director/writer, who by the way was making his directorial debut at 26.

Chronicle was written by Josh Trank (director) and Max Landis, and it crosses borders on the effects of child abuse on a person’s psychology and how power can corrupt even the simple.

I guess the main character Andrew (Dane DeHaan) must not have come across the movie Spiderman, which treats the notion “with great power comes great responsibility.”

Shot from a documentary view and seen as found footage (much like Blair Witch Project), the movie has its bad parts too. Like the reason Andrew kept a camera on all the time. Here are some stupid reasons given by the film and my take on it:

1. A police officer refers to the camcorder next to an unconscious person’s hospital bed and says, “The camera gets to stay on for our investigation.” (Really? When did they start that?)
2. Andrew’s father gets home drunk, and Andrew shouts, “I'm setting up the camera so I can record this.” (Why do you want to record your father abusing you?)
3. Andrew goes robbing and keeps the camera running so as to document his rise in the ecosystem. (I don’t get it.)

All in all, the writers could have done more and taken this movie to the top. The movie showed why Professor X is so important in the training of young mutant minds.

Chronicle may not be a masterpiece, and if you hate the idea of found footage, camera shaking, and loud irritating noise, then Chronicle may not be for you. I have to applaud the acting in this movie though, it was fantastic from all the cast.

Worth seeing.