Chronicle (2012)

One night, during a wild rave, three teens (Andrew, Steve, and Matt) decide to investigate a mysterious hole in the ground. At first, Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is reluctant to take the trip into the mysterious hole, but his cousin, Matt (Alex Russell) and their new found and popular friend, Steve (Micahel B. Jordan) convince him to explore the mystery. The teens have a strange and dangerous encounter with a large glowing object, that causes some severe nosebleeds, and everyone blacks out. The teens were able to survive their encounter with the mysterious glowing object, and all of them have received superpowers. Everything is joyous at first, and the group of teens manage to have fun with their powers, but Andrew’s problems at home begin to get worse as time passes by. Andrew is tired of being bullied, he can’t stand his abusive and alcoholic father, and he will abuse his powers in the worst way.

At first I wanted to give up on Chronicle. I just thought “Oh boy. This is going to be ANOTHER boring and bland found-footage film, with shaky camera affects. But shaky camera affects are cool, because they make everything feel more realistic!” Ugh. Well, my opinions of this film drastically changed as time passed by, and I slowly became a big fan of this film. The story can feel mysterious and intriguing, because I wanted to know where the superpowers came from. Will the teens try to become heroes and save the world? Or will they just continue to have fun, and act like wild college kids, who don’t have any sense of responsibility?

I was intrigued by the story, but Andrew’s descent into madness was unreal. Andrew is a kid with some serious problems. You can clearly see this early on, and I did want to feel for this character. Dane DeHaan did provide a very believable performance. The Andrew character has to deal with a lot of problems at home, but he couldn’t look past his tough life at home, and he couldn’t overcome the tragic situation in his broken family. Instead, Andrew chose to lash out with rage and vengeance, and he used his powers to destroy everything in his path. Andrew’s transformation was unreal, because he starts out as this shy kid, who eats shit from EVERYONE, but towards the end of the film, he becomes this raging and powerful psycho, who will stop at nothing to cause chaos.

The production values in this film were pretty good, and I really enjoyed this, because some found-footage films try so hard, when it comes to staying true to the realism factor. Shitty production values don’t do anything for me, but Chronicle really doesn’t have any real problems in this department. Chronicle features a nice set of likeable characters, who you can actually care about, and I really enjoyed this film. Michael Kelly is probably the only recognizable face in this entire film, and Chronicle does feature a cast of relatively unknown actors. But the main cast does deserve a ton of credit here. Dane Haan, Alex Russell, and Micahel B. Jordan all delivered some very solid and convincing performances, and the acting in this film is very enjoyable.

Chronicle does provide some nice humor, and they were able to mix in some believable and genuine drama here. Most of the drama revolves around the Andrew character, and this film did feature a shocking death, because I really didn’t see it coming. Also, the final moments of this film are packed with action, suspense, and thrills, and Chronicles exciting conclusion really did hook me in. At first, Chronicle might feel like an ordinary drama about teens, and the problems they face during their high school years, as they grow up. And this film does have its cheerful moments, but Chronicle eventually turns into one highly entertaining science-fiction film, and I couldn’t get enough of this one, once the story FINALLY gained some real momentum.

Final Rating: 7/10