Chronicle focuses on 3 teenagers who gain powers from an unknown crater and, as most teenagers would, begin having fun with their powers, messing with people with their new telekinetic abilities. Sounds fun right? It is, for a while.
Fuck me, I am sick and tired of these found footage/handy cam films, it is cheap and doesn’t work most of the time. Chronicle is no exception, they give a bullshit reason why there are always handy cams present and it is just horse shit. Plus, if you are going to do the handy cam shit, keep it fucking consistent, some shots are not explained, especially in the final fight, there is no camera there to zoom in on the actors faces, yet somehow we get a close-up of them.
The narrative of Chronicle is extremely scatter brained and with no actual plot or story to be told. It starts out fine, teens get powers, start messing around, that is fine for like 15 minutes, but it drags on for over half the film and then after that, all of a sudden, this teen who was friends with the other two decides he is the “Apex Predator”, which basically means he is above everyone else and basically goes bat shit crazy. That’s it; that is the “story” of Chronicle.
Most of the actors in Chronicle vary from acceptable to all out terrible. The main actor, Dane DeHaan plays Andrew and quite frankly, the first 20 minutes he is absolutely terrible, totally unconvincing and everything, but he definitely improves throughout the film, and in the final fight, he definitely is the better of the actors there, but still nothing amazing. The other two teens who get powers, played by Alex Russell and Michael Jordan (Not the Basketball player) do a decent enough job and are fairly charismatic, but don’t even get me started on the “love interest” played by Ashley Hinshaw, she was just awful.
The idea of Chronicle is pretty interesting, although it is nowhere near original. It is like Fox have just given up, let’s set the scene –
“We have got a great idea for a film”
Fox Execs – “What is it?”
“Teenagers get superpowers”
“Go on…”
“…uh, one of them turns….bad?”
“Isn’t this The X-Men?”
“N…no”
“What makes it different?”
“It’s filmed on handy cams”
“Why handy cams?”
“It’s cheaper”
“When can you start filming!”
Honestly, it is a shame. Another example is the UK TV show Misfits, which is a fantastic show, is a realistic take on what it would be like if some young offenders got super powers, it is a thousand times better than this excuse for a film.
Not everything about Chronicle is bad, I will say that the final fight scene is great and definitely has an epic feel, but some awesome action is not enough to save this film unfortunately. I do not recommend this film at all, YouTube the action scenes if you are curious so you don’t have to sit through the rest of the film.
4/10