Chronicle (2012) Review

If you surveyed a bunch of people and asked ‘which super ability would you like to have’ at least 90% would probably say ‘the ability to fly’.

So you’d think that a film about a bunch of teenage boys acquiring this ability would be all fun and laughs. But with the sci-thriller film Chronicle, that’s not quite the case.

Andrew, Matt and Steve are a funny group of friends, each with a different personality and position in the high school hierarchy. Andrew is painfully shy and withdrawn, mainly because of issues with his parents, while Steve is at the other end of the scale – confident, successful and destined for big things.

It’s when the trio attends a party that they’re thrown into a supernatural situation which changes them forever. They have little recollection of the chance discovery of a mysterious underground cavern and the time spent there, but when they awake, they soon realise that they have new amazing new abilities.
Thanks to being exposed to an extraterrestrial energy of some sort, these guys can move things with their mind. And this telekinetic power isn’t limited to coins or even tables. With practice, the threesome are able to move big objects like cars and trucks and even themselves (that’s how the flying bit comes in).

As ever, with great power comes great responsibility and when it becomes apparent that Andrew is having trouble controlling his urges to use these new abilities to do bad things, the boys friendship turns sour. and as Andrew is the most powerful of the three, this is a big problem. Queue a big battle of morals fantastically fought in the sky using huge objects for weapons.

Chronicle is one of those films that’s appealing from the get go. It plays on a common fantasy and gives and exciting and realistic view of what it would be like for an everyday person to become an all powerful super being.

The main characters are interesting and engaging, performed with conviction. And even though Chronicle is a first person found footage affair, director Josh Trank manages to find clever ways to keep things interesting and more importantly, capture the telekinetic action.

The film is very well finished and manages to mesmerise, making it impossible for you to want to look away or turn off. It’s almost as if the film itself has some kind of super, mind bending power.

Part super hero movie, part sci-horror, Chronicle makes for interesting viewing fusing popular mainstream pieces but infusing them with an element of darkness which makes the film entertaining yet disturbing.

Lets hope that the sequel (currently in development) will also come up with the goods.

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