Chronicle



The trailer for Chronicle is a well crafted and instantly raises some interest in the film. It helps that the idea behind the film is refreshing as well. It’s the simple idea of what-if… teenage boys suddenly acquired super-hero powers? What would they do? Good things? Bad things? Go way beyond their mean and do some over the top stuff? Keep it a secret? All these things are explored. The added interest here is one of the kids, Dane DeHaan as Andrew, lives in a very nasty home situation and is abused. So we know mentally he is unstable. He is also very annoying, as is the other lead Alex Russell at Matt. Michael Jordan as Steve seems to be the only normal kid here.

But… we do see some hefty transformation of character as the story unfolds.

Some of the scenes reminded me of my dreams about flying. Some of the scenes were just cartoonish. They did rather eye popping special effects in many shots, but had a hard time maintaining that and some scenes are obvious cranes and wires.

Anyway, this film could have got maybe 4 stars, but I gave it 2 for found footage… Arghhhhh – enough already. I cannot tell you how my face fell as the opening scene sets up the whole ‘I’m going to film everything” scenario.

There are two major cons for Chronicle... I detest shaky cam. I’ve thought about it more. Maybe, just maybe I could handle the shaky cam if they weren’t so deliberate on amateur holding the camera. They can’t focus on the subject in the lens, they wander for no reason. They zoom in and out for no reason. None of this is natural. Our eyes and mind don’t do any of this. They keep a balance. So now directors are using the tool (camera lens) to put you in the moment. Well the moment is way too long and distracts away from the intent of the film.

Secondly, I detest the idea of someone filming everything including watching someone needing help, or dying or getting their own ass kicked. This counters the balance of giving the believability of being there/found footage perspective.

I'd say rent. Rottentomatoes has a generally good overall rating. So don't let my bias against Shaky cam skew this too much. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exr5B8DCH4w