Monday, February 6, 2012

Chronicle

Chronicle
Directed by: Josh Trank
Written by: Max Landis

Plot:
Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.

Review:
This movie, figuratively,  just blew my mind. I am stoked to hear that it is #1 in the box office this weekend since it is most deserving of it. I haven’t been this excited coming out of a movie since Scott Pilgrim or Kick Ass and Chronicle is surely at the same level of awesomeness as those two films.

Our main character of this film is high school loner, Andrew Detmer, who decides to start filming everything in his life, to help cope with his feelings of his Dad being an alcoholic. His cousin, Matt, and his friend, Steve, stumble upon a hole in the ground and decide to explore, leading to them getting powers. Some of the magic that was this film, took place during the scenes when they were learning about their powers. It was intriguing, hilarious, and dark to watch. As their powers grow they must learn to keep control of their new powers.
All of the acting in this film was great too. They all pulled off their parts really well which made it all feel more realistic. Dane DeHaan, who played Andrew, stole the show with his portrayal of an outcast high school student. It really was powerful, and I am not surprised to look at his IMDB page and see he has many upcoming projects. What I am surprised about is how little upcoming projects Michael B. Jordan (The Wire, Friday Night Lights) has on his plate. He played Steve, the jock, and killed it, bringing a lot of humor to the screen. As for Alex Russell he got to play the noble, level headed one. He was the cousin of Andrew who tried to help Andrew make friends, out of pity.

Chronicle is filmed as a found footage film similarly to Cloverfield.  That meaning all footage shot for the film comes from a character’s camera. I know I am a big fan of this style and unlike Cloverfield, the footage is not shaky for the entire film (which to be honest I didn’t mind in Cloverfield). 

The only thing that bothered me, and this is really nitpicking, is the editing of the film. It is suppose to be found footage, yet they cut all the time on conversation and it makes no sense why the person holding the camera at the time would have stopped recording int he middle of a conversation. Also, one camera is lost, so the footage would be lost, and the movie was from the point of view of over 20 cameras I would have to say. So that means who ever put together this footage, had to find every single camera and then edit it in chronological order. But now as I write this, the movie is called Chronicle, so maybe that’s where it comes from. I don’t know. Besides, none of it bothered me because it was effective and the movie was too awesome for me to really care.

Chronicle is a must see movie. I mean go see it right now, it’s awesome. I hope that they leave it at this one film, because they left it open for another, and their is no way that they could top this movie. Also, best superhero battles ever!!!!

Rating: 9.5/10

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