Tired of being pushed around by his drunk dad, neighbourhood thugs and school bullies, high school loner Andrew (Dane DeHaan) decides to start filming his every waking moment. This comes in handy when, at a party he was reluctantly dragged to by his philosophy-quoting cousin Matt (Alex Russel), they discover a strange glowing meteorite in the nearby woods. Together with charming would-be class president Steve (Michael B Jordan), they investigate. And, as anyone who has ever read a comic book can tell you, with strange glowing rocks comes strange new powers, and with strange new powers comes… well...
That’s the big problem with Chronicle: there is absolutely nothing going on here that you haven’t seen before. And yes, if originality was a requirement in Hollywood productions, cinemas would be closed eleven months of the year. But, believe me when I say that Chronicle really does feel like the producer said “let’s make a superhero movie using found footage” and then everyone just went to lunch.
That said, making a superhero movie using found footage isn’t the worst idea ever, and a lot of the early scenes where the trio are exploring their newfound superpowers are entertaining in a “check out this crazy clip on YouTube” kind of way.
In an enjoyable change from the usual dour approach most super-hero movies take, these guys actually revel in their supernatural abilities. Some of their powers are even semi-logical too: the space rock gives them a form of telekinesis (obviously).
Let’s be honest though, it’s not hard to see where all this is going. There’s going to be a big fight, and the film builds up a decent amount of tension on how the drama is going to pan out. However, as with all found footage movies, the characters aren’t exactly rich and complex: Andrew’s big character trait is that he gets pushed around, Matt perpetually sounds out clichés, “we are beings of pure will”, and Steve is the token black guy.
The whole discovery-of-prior-video-recordings angle is really pushed to the limits in Chronicle. A girl (Ashley Hinshaw) turns up who also films everything she says and does “for her blog” (yeah, let's all bookmark that one), which enables back-and-forth editing in the scenes she’s in, while Andrew soon discovers he can make his camera float around him, enabling him to get his head into a few more scenes (which are surprisingly well shot considering he’s not looking through the viewfinder).
At barely 75 minutes (not counting credits) this is more of a rabbit punch than a slugfest. Once the stock standard story starts to kick in and the fun “check this out” moments drop off, the film rapidly becomes plodding and dull. There is one decent scene later on at a talent show where Andrew and Steve use their powers to put on a magic act that will hopefully get Andrew laid (who knew the kids were so into magic?), but after that it’s all downhill until THE BIG FIGHT.
If you remember the big fight at the end of The Matrix Revolutions, you pretty much know what to expect here. It’s generally handled well though, with good use of all manner of cameras (security cameras, people filming street action, news helicopters and so on) making the otherwise nonspecific car tossing/ building smashing action seem a lot grittier than the last few Marvel movies. There’s a nod or two to anime classic Akira thrown in as well; if you’re going to steal, you might as well steal from the best.
Two stars