Review of Chronicle (2012) by Archibald T — 02 Mar 2013

Oh God! Superpowers given to High Schoolers and it's given the found footage treatment! Well, okay, I will say I was a bit skeptical at first. I thought I was about to wonder into a movie that would be part Superman and part Cloverfield. I was wrong. Instead we're given a very interesting take on the use of powers when given to one such angry teenager.

Andrew is a very unpopular kid. He's bullied a lot at school, but he's still able to have friends thanks to his cousin Matt. Matt is introduced to popular kid Michael who, in a way, feels like an outsider himself sometimes. These three stooges become our focal point of the story as it's being documented by Andrew himself. He's looking to film his life story and good thing that he is because something incredible is about to take place.

One night at a party, the three stumble upon a giant hole in the ground and inside they find a glowing object. The film cuts to black once it begins to emit a loud noise, but then we're taken a few weeks later after the strange phenomenon occurred to what these three have gained from this object. It's powers. They're able to mainly move objects and fly around. They're able to use these powers for the fun that they are. They're not dumb teenagers who will go and post this stuff up on Youtube for the world to see. No. They're responsible enough to know that with these powers comes a great responsibility.

That is until it's given to the angriest teenager of all who uses it to exact vengeance against, well, EVERYONE! Andrew is probably the only character I could possibly relate to the most. His struggles with dealing with his mother dying and his father's abuse along with the hell of high school would make anyone snap in a millisecond. His cousin, Matt, comes to FINALLY realizing Andrews destructive nature and sympathizes with his sad plight of being the angry teenager for whom the world is always against.

The use of the 'found footage' genre is put to great use here. The camera acts more like a character since Andrew himself is documenting most of everything. His camera is like himself, but the use of special effects was probably the most impressive for it's small budget. It's a bit hard to think of this as part of the superhero genre since all three don't don capes and fight crime. If anything it's best served as to answering THE question: What if you had the powers of a superhero? Would you use it for bad or for good?

Overall, I would use it for both. :).