Chronicle

Chronicle is probably the first movie of 2012 that I've been highly anticipating. The first time I saw the trailer last year, I was instantly drawn in and eagerly awaiting the release. I love the genre, and the movie actually looked like it would be good; However, I know better than to let myself be fooled by a good trailer. With the recent success of superhero and "found footage" movies over the last decade, we've seen a rush of movies try to find an audience, some more successful than others. Chronicle takes the two genres and combines them in an interesting way to make it feel real, creating a surprising and refreshing movie experience.

In Chronicle, three teenagers discover they have telekinetic-like superpowers after happening upon a strange crystal in the woods. Instead of following the "with great power, comes great responsibility" mantra most origin movies adopt, Chronicle takes a more realistic approach. Tell me which of you wouldn't play pranks, play catch in the sky, or just have fun if given superpowers. As the teens grow closer through their new found powers, the painful emotions of one get the better of him and things start spinning helplessly out of control. Thankfully, he's been catching it all on his camera.

My favorite part of the movie is when the kids learn how to fly. There is a carefree scene where they soar through the clouds and are throwing a football, only to be interrupted by a 747. It's adrenaline rushing and exciting. It is a low budget movie, so some of the special effects are cheesy, like when they are throwing a baseball at each other, but when the scope of the movie becomes larger, the effects become less distracting and more impressive thanks to the "handheld" camera approach the movie takes. Thankfully, Andrew learns to control the camera with his mind so it's not all shaky camera action like you would expect. The movie also takes some liberty by using other camera's for perspective, like when Matt's video-blogging crush films them, or in the climax where Andrew surrounds himself with the cameras and cellphones of onlookers. The only thing I was disappointed with was the lack of an explanation of where the crystal came from or what happened to them when they found it in the form of an end-credits scene. It would have added some nice backstory to a plot point that felt more like an element of convenience than anything else. Why was the crystal there? Where did it come from? How did the cave collapse? Why were there military police surrounding the area when the kids went back to look at it? 

At the end of the day, I was pleasantly surprised with Chronicle, as I hope you would be too. Chronicle tries to do something different in a genre that is typically overdone, and I feel like it succeeds. Although cliched, it's fresh and emotionally deep. It could have been a disaster, and thankfully, it is far from one.