Who knew that one accident could change lives so much. This fantastic film takes the audience away into a wonderful story that is a joy to watch the whole way through.
Chronicle takes three teenage boys on an exciting rollercoaster of an adventure.
The story starts off with just an average teenage boy, Andrew Detmer (Dane Dehaan, The Wettest County) who has some troubles with high school. Eventually his cousin Matt (Alex Russell, Wasted on the Young) forces him to go to a party, where he is dragged to some mysterious discovery by Matt and Steve (Michel B. Jordan, Friday Night Lights). The discovery is a hole that emits strange sounds, and the boys decide that it would be a good idea to go down the hole, where there is some kind of telekinetic alien space rock. After some distorted scenes involving the rock, the scene cuts.
When the boys wake up, they start to notice strange abilities that they have gained. They then proceed to train these powers by catching baseballs, moving Lego’s, lifting weights and lifting beds. After messing around with these powers in public, Andrew accident forces a car to crash through a guard rail and drive into a lake. After some random man is hospitalized, they begin to put rules on what they can and cannot do to try and protect people from themselves. But even with these restrictions, they continue to train, and discover that they can fly, which leads them to play around in the upper atmosphere.
One of the best looks at the mysterious item that gives the powers. Image Courtesy of Google Images
When one of his friends dies, Andrew begins to push closer and closer to the villainous side of things, with him becoming more and more aggressive. Eventually Andrew turns against everyone, threatening to destroy all who stand in his way.
This film is flat out fantastic. The acting is spot on. The story is what drives the movie. The special effects take everything onto another level. The filming style is phenomenal. The best part is all the different parts of the movie mesh together into something absolutely amazing.
One thing about this film that really makes it stand out is the filming style. This film did something truly unique. Instead of just having the audience watch the movie from a point that is just hovering in space, the audience sees the entire movie through different personal cameras. Most of the movie is shown through Andrew’s camera, although the audience is shown what is happening from security footage, cell phones/ iPods, police helicopters, and another person’s camera. The reason that this makes such a huge deal in the movie is because it will have moments of a person speaking from behind the camera, or the camera will start to jerk from the movements of the person holding the camera.
Things go wrong, and one will save the day. Image Courtesy of Google Images
Then comes the acting. Dehaan performs wonderfully in the part of Andrew, bringing out the true emotion held within a character. Russell plays the high school senior who is getting back on track well, but he is at his best in the moments that he has to show concern, worry or deep emotions about what is going on with Andrew. But the most realistic of them all would have to be Jordan, playing the popular senior who is trying to live his life while gaining powers and friends through this accident.
The story of this film stands up there with some of the better films that have been released recently. Instead of relying on explosions and colorful lights, like many movies of this sort, such as the summer’s comic book hero flop Green Lantern, Chronicle instead uses a story to push everything forward, using critical events, such as Andrew’s mother’s decreasing health to cause different kinds of reactions, instead of having things just kind of happen.
The film does have its flaws. The characters are a bit predictable in what happens with them, and a few moments where the acting is a bit bland. Probably the best example of this is Andrew’s descent into darkness. It was fairly obvious that he would be the one to turn evil, and the way he acted during his fall was less of a tormented teen and more of a psychopath without a care for the common man. But this film manages to overcome these moments, driving its way into the hearts of the audience. This film is a must see, and completely worth the price of admission.
Rating: ★★★★★
