| Directed by | Josh Trank |
|---|---|
| Produced by | |
| Screenplay by | Max Landis |
| Story by | Max Landis Josh Trank |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Matthew Jensen |
| Edited by | Elliot Greenberg |
| Production company |
|
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release dates |
February 3, 2012 |
| Running time | 83 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12 million |
| Box office | $126,636,097 |
Oddly spun then staggering towards its climax, Chronicle injects a fresher twist to the undying superhero genre, which basic concept might be unoriginal but becomes anew with its realist approach, from the camera movements, the minimalist but still impressive superhero action that enthralls the gradually-paced narrative into more than what audiences expected.
Forget Batman! Forget Superman! Let’s expunge the gargantuan, larger-than-life characters we know from the Marvel-DC brand off our system and start pondering upon a simple, realistically illogical question. What if out of the blue you were granted a super power? Like literally? Either one lives the rest of your life with it as a hero or villain or perceived such things as a gift or curse, Chronicle explores that repeated but essential concept of many successful superhero flicks based upon their own perspectives.
Likewise to any superhero flick, the lead has always been a male but this time tripled as it all started when we are introduced by three young ordinary men Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Steve (Michael B. Jordan), and Matt (Alex Russell). Matt and Andrew are cousins, and Steve is the typical jock in a high school, straight-A, chick magnet, where he’s running for school president. Though Matt and Steve stroll through high school socializing with the popular packs, Andrew’s life is in contrast of theirs. Being a bullying target of the jocks as well as having an abusive father, Andrew is pretty much a social outcast with a dim personality, with his only solace being her supportive mom dying in her death bed, his camcorder which he brought along everywhere he goes, and Matt, who cheered on him through his downtime.
To motivate Andrew, Matt insists on taking him to Haven Hills for a wild frat bash. This does not enticed Andrew, but eventually he, Matt, and Steve found something that surely changed their lives, in the form of an abandoned hole at some lush forest where a glowing crystalline mold embedded on the underground cave’s wall, somewhat having a crude similarity to Fortress of Solitude in terms of design turned their lives around.
The scene then undergoes a smash cut where suddenly the trio found themselves having super powers like telekinesis, invincibility, and aerodynamics. Deviating from the cliché comic book storyline, they didn’t use their powers to save the world or vanquishing bad guys. Instead they exerted them for fun, pranks, and foul deeds, which they are able to smoothly run away from. Eventually there will always be the cons in being incidentally endowed with such gracious aura, where Andrew slowly begins to be consumed by the darker side of his power. As a rebellious version of Andrew emerges, it is for Matt and Steve to try to prevent him from being what we feared: a super villain!
Let’s get to the point. Found footage films or if to associate as the shaky handheld camera film trend undoubtedly have become this sort of a plague. Initiated from the now big Lions Gate Studio cashing in for an approximate $ 200,000 budget for Blair Witch Project, audiences seemed to find this new found genre as a cult favorite that would eventually bloom in forthcoming years. The found footage film formula of being a very short, fast paced directed piece with the vibrating, nauseating camera movement as the main jarring attraction, and preference to unknown, inexperienced actors have permanently forged the criteria which nowadays are used in the exact order for future productions.
The cheaply made Blair surprisingly cracks the $ 100 million barriers and words spread of a simple film that can march a revolution to the film industry. Thirteen years since the haunting rockiness of Blair astonished us, found footage films have often been linked to horror films (famous ones like Paranormal Activity (1, 2, 3), Devil Inside), and one Godzilla modeled monster film (Cloverfield (by far the most expensive found footage films with $ 35 million budget)), but the filthy-rich moguls of 20th Century Fox penned another genre that could glue well with the gradually popular found footage genre. Superhero flicks.
Hell yeah, superhero flicks that ranges from a frenzy of X-Men, Spiderman, Superman along its buffy and hot cronies and enemies. Combining these two diverse genres into one would be a difficult task with its sense of oddness that’ll only desecrate other than preserving the adored genre after the end credits. But Fox doesn’t relent about releasing Chronicle, and billed $ 15 mil to green light the ambitious film. Delving deep at how all found footage films have broken the lines of $ 100 million despite funded with insufficient budget, the handicap would be the devoid of a major actor, actress, or director involved with only Max Landis, the heir to legendary director John Landis as the screenplay writer.
But let’s forget about the statistics, and only the audience can decide themselves whether to give Chronicle a tainted red A+ mark or a much lower score.
May not be the best nor perfect found footage film albeit the viral promotion in bunch of channels that knells to such potential, the spunky fun ride Chronicle accurately depicts the long lasting superhero genre in its utmost loyal but also realist direction. It follows the modern trait of dark toned comic reboot which help rejuvenates the soiled, interred, deemed less serious superhero genre when Christopher Nolan skippered Batman Begins, which darker tone and superhero thematic might decelerate the usually fast-paced dynamics of a found footage film (although the camerawork could invert this statement), and the lack of actions or thrills which stays in exile almost for half of the movie until exploding only at the more noisy climax clearly is a contradiction to the Michael Bay forte explosion and quick cuts of action sequences that wholly fills from start to finish instead embracing at its strongest to dramatic moments, deeper focus on characterization and its relying slow build-up likely to comic book structure panel-per-panel, displaying its faithfulness within the odd shaky real-time spin maturely with a little slab of teenage slang and cracking humors avid comic fans can revel and happily muse on or for newbies to gain lucid details of the characters and really capture their emotions or sort presented in the movie.
Even if Chronicle is unoriginal or as exciting as usual hero folklore are, but it does not ruin the genre hence successfully bashed teen drama and comic book elements well into one, though at times shared in such uneven portion. To evaluate, Chronicle is lesser the action-packed comic book inspired narrative, but more of the drama which “chronicles” around the teenage lifestyle storyline rather than overexposing the superhero plot. Superhero film’s main component which is the CGI were less spectacular for its genre, but not in the means that it was cheap or somewhat obsolete.
The men behind the tech handled the visual effects sufficiently for a handheld camera film with its realistic approach, as not going over the top to take away the handheld genre’s realist experience as well as not too shabby for a minimally-funded project. In the bits of CGI that featured, it gives a slim prod to some action sequences, still eye-catching and bearing the weight of the wow factor as seismic as a big budget Marvel or DC production without too much cacophony and visual effect riot inside, that also blend with the sophisticated HD camerawork driven by the rapid smash cuts and dizzying panning shots. Simply, Chronicle is plain brainless entertainment that heats up way too late but impresses visually and narratively even with minimal budget.
For a found footage film, Chronicle compiled many issues in which all binds closely to the teenage subject, being the central point which then connects the dots to the superhero tinge. School bullying, abuse, and survival in the primitives of schoolmates’ ignorance which a nerdy Andrew must cope throughout the movie as sex and popularity ranks are things Matt and Steve tries to maintain socially. But still, the thing that strengthens the red string here are friendship where the super powers act as if it was a tsunami wave that test their relationship.
The friendship theme is what Max Landis as the brain behind it all attempts to convey, playing with super powers as the psychological villain while the three friends the heroes must conquer its vile, parlous temptations which Andrew relents into, which instead the gleaming pitch of “Paranormal Activity meets superhero flick” being overly flaunted by the more action based trailer and Fox reps. Even though the high school teen drama vein flows almost at the entire reel, but there is room to draw in some actions and thrills that look vague but developing during the trio’s quest upon learning their powers encircling in Act 2, but progress the tale’s sway as it reaches the heart pumping, nail biting tragic end when one must fight its own ally in Act 3.
The fade-in was kind of flat and irrelevant, where the first 15-20 minutes veers far from the premise we purchased tickets for, with the swigging beers and sexy strippers implies the impression as if we’ve watched the wrong movie or a teen lit The Hangover. Landis should’ve set a backstory that elongates the section on how the crystal’s got there or anything that bears the connection even if the details are only a splinter, and not be a replica of the first quarter of Cloverfield that is padded with unnecessary, damned sequences, which gives the conclusion that found footage films always looks bad in its early minutes, before becoming the vintage hit we yearned for at the second half of it. As of being convincing as a superhero flick, the first 20 minutes fails to generate anything that hits exactly that, though if we calculate in uplifting the teen drama genre, the opening gives a neat base to really drift into the drive of these characters that made us wonder why they are worthy of such powers.
Likewise to Cloverfield, the story becomes intriguing when the three musketeers found the hole and moments thenceforth came close to the heroic fluids we eager to see and as minutes passed, Uncle Ben Parker’s adage in 2002’s Spiderman “With great power comes great responsibility” flashing by Matt’s and Steve’s minds as they begin to get cautious on Andrew’s growing power as it became to cause harm around them, which Steve sets rules for.
The superpower elements used in the movie were also common but interesting to explore deeper, though it looks more as Chronicle is the sleazy, relaxed version of the comic characters we’ve known for years, if to mention one with resemblance in its surrealist ability would be Superman. While Superman saves the world and gets the damsel, the three spends time loafing around streets pranking people and goofing at their foul deeds as if they are Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass gang or the FAIL artist from YouTube, with only Matt that gets the girl.
As the three honed at their superiority, Andrew suddenly transforms into this villain, in the molds of Magneto coincidentally involving a suffering mother and family oppression supported by his grainy POV of his environment as if it’s a dystopia to his perspective, in which in the last half hour he became, which also made the conflicts more alluring as what bounds next would be the battle of the supers that sure the audience would be enticed about. The ending was tragic and shocking but good enough to shed tears where in no means to leak, some of the pitied yet lovable characters have to die a violent death, and where talking sense to an evil consumed kid is impossible. All these long listed order combined well into Landis’ script that runs from a pointless 20 minutes with dialogues like a man who’s high on drugs, a burgeoning conflict in the center of the film, to wrapping up the 83 minutes sci fi tale composed of a mind-numbing, fun, and emotional roller coaster ride.
The risky stride for any wide released movie like Chronicle would be at its void of big names involved in it. Max Landis is simply a debutant no one has ever heard of till the John Landis’ son brand kind of becomes the towing tools to brace the stampede of moviegoers in, expecting the level of quality that match the par of John’s eccentricity and greatness. Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, and Michael B. Jordan is a name barely heard of, the last name gaining pretty small notice on network TV on NBC’ s Parenthood but that doesn’t really prove enough to lure us to see this film rather than the conspicuous premise.
After observing their performance in Chronicle, this could be a breakthrough that can earn them bigger roles in the future. DeHaan really absorbs Andrew with the flat, sleepy tone speaking and a dual face that can both spell goody-too-shoe nerd and demoniac evil psycho. If there were any casting for a 17 year old Magneto for a teen biopic of the magnetically-powered bad guy, DeHaan would certainly fits the role with his composure and expression matches the Ian McKellen iconic role and this film really shows his maturity for the bigger roles. So as Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan who respectively portray the half cool half nerdy Matt and the high confident, cool suave Steve did wonderful jobs though the main spotlight is still mantled by the acclaimed DeHaan’s creepy presence as Andrew. When the trio is assembled into a team, the chemistry lit with improvisation and freedom in nurturing such easy roles and mingled it into a very memorable pack, which fabricates this likable, crazy ass distinguished super pack. Other than the trio’s domination, there’s no character that really came out as ensnaring as them (Casey played by Ashley Hinshaw is nothing more than eye candy) as the three really owns the movie.
To close up the review, Chronicle is simply a treat that needs you to nullify the sense of logic and just have fun with whatever pops up the screen, though at the same time, it also has heart in patches. It might not be as great as what we expect like Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch Project, but surely Chronicle is a recommended one to see for someone who looks for the in between the superhero genre and handheld genre.
suburbia666 