Chronicle (2012)

I promised some of my friends that I would put this up a few hours after seeing this movie. That was about fourteen hours ago. So, Ginny and Hannah, I am sorry. Now let’s begin! Chronicle is the first movie that I’ve seen that was a 2012 film. I designed it this way (not seeing Man on a Ledge with my not-as-awesome friends), so that I could gush over this movie. And gush I shall. Written by the son of John Landis, Max, and directed by first-time director Josh Trank, Chronicle should have been terrible from the beginning. A found-footage superhero movie with angry angst-filled teens who fight should have been terrible. But then the trailer came out a couple months ago, and the concept intrigued me enough to check it out. Since then, Chronicle was at the very top of my ‘must-see’ list, which is well deserved. Truly so much more than a superhero movie, Chronicle is probably one of the most fantastic and purely haunting films since Drive (and I know I saw Drive last week, but I’m talking in the sense of release date). Starring absolutely wonderful teen TV actor Dane DeHaan (seriously. At some legitimate award ceremony, please give this kid a nomination for Best Actor) as Andrew, this movie follows him as he begins to film his terrible life, beaten by his father, his mother dying, him having no friends, just slowly becoming a wave of destruction. But when he is helped out by his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and Matt’s friend Steve (Michael B. Jordan), he begins to have some friends and social life, which is greatly emphasized when the three of them find a hole in the middle of a ditch. They go in the hole. They walk out with superpowers. For wisely unexplained reasons, they now have telekinetic powers, and use those powers the way teens would-pulling pranks on people. That’s what’s great with this movie. It actually shows what would happen instead of what their parents would want to happen. They don’t go around swinging building-to-building with pizza boxes in hand, they actually make some decent havoc in the grocery store world. They find out they can fly as their powers get stronger. Soon, they can do anything, but despite his newfound popularity, Andrew, because of the terrible way his father treats him, goes rouge. He starts to steal money (for his mother’s treatment, but still), and beats up people and probably kills a lot of them. So, despite pleas from the others, the end of this movie turns into a terrifying superhero war in the middle of the city, but even though he’s killing thousands of lives, you never give up on Andrew. He’s such a sympathetic character, and his life was going so well, it’s more of a tragic teen drama than it is a superhero movie. And with the people being able to move the camera with their mind and get some great cinematic shots, and switching from camera-to-camera made the film lose the ‘found footage touch’ that even Cloverfield had to bear. This movie is a wonderful superhero movie, a wonderful found footage movie, and heck, just a wonderful movie. It truly is as near perfect as you can get in 2012. Please go see this movie. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll pretend that you have superpowers at the end and freak out all your friends (sorry guys). But seriously, please go see this movie. It deserves it.
9.5/10