Review of Chronicle (2012) by Miguel O — 30 Jan 2013

With great power comes great responsibility. Although this quote comes from the Spiderman franchise, it is the general idea behind any superhero movie. For his directorial debut, Josh Trank brings us the American film Chronicle. Chronicle is a 2012 sci-fi film with some elements of the film being a thriller. Set in the city of Seattle, it focuses on the lives of troubled teenager Andrew Detmer (Dane Dehaan), his cousin Matt Garetty (Alex Russell) and the popular teenager Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan) who gain super telekinetic powers after encountering a foreign object.

The film starts off with Andrew filming what his regular day is like. He lives a troubled life with his mother sick with cancer, his father abusing him and bullies making his school life terrible. Steve, a very popular kid from the same high school, invites Andrew to film an alien object that he and Andrew's cousin Matt have found underground. Soon after this event the trio learns that they have telekinetic powers. These powers allow them to be able to control objects with their mind. As they exercise their use of their powers, they become stronger allowing them to control larger objects. The three teenagers begin to form a friendship and start documenting their powers with Andrew's camera. They use these powers for fun by playing pranks and just exploring their potential. Andrew is able to get away from his troubled life with his new friends and new powers.

Things take a turn for the worst when Andrew's father harms him and he retaliates using his powers. His troubled life starts to catch up to him. Andrew starts using his super powers irresponsibly such as physically hurting the people that bully him and stealing cash to pay for his mother's medicine. Things worsen even more when his father informs him of his mother's death and blames him for it. This leads into Andrew raging throughout the city causing destruction in his path. The story for this movie is different from the normal superhero movie. In this movie the main character of the movie transforms to be the villain of the movie. This plot twist makes the story interesting and enjoyable.

The film is shown through different camera point of views such as Andrew's handheld camcorder and security cameras. This is done really well as Andrew carries his camcorder most of the time and we are able to see the teenager's antics through an engaging point of view. Although this film takes place in Seattle; it was filmed in Cape Town and Vancouver and establishes a great representation of Seattle through the environments and weather. Some of the CGI effects for the telekinesis and backdrops were disappointing. For example, when the three teenagers were flying through the sky it looked very unrealistic. In terms of acting, the relatively unknown cast of actors put on a good performance for the film. The star of this movie is Dane Dehaan who is able to portray Andrew as someone who I feel remorse for in the beginning to a villain that needs to be stopped. This movie maintains the idea of being responsible for the powers you possess and tells a great story of someone who is unable to control that power.