Review of Chronicle (2012) by Kristi M — 23 May 2015

I think that this movie is brilliant. Cloverfield had some excellent special effects proving that just because it's "found footage" doesn't have to mean low quality. Chronicle boasts both great special effects even without CGI and excellent character depth.

As it goes forward it changes from wonder and genuine laughs to dark psychological development and follows through with the foreshadowing to create a super hero and arch nemesis. The actors are so compelling that the progression from one extreme to the other seems believable.

It's like X-Men origins filmed via "handheld" cameras in "real life" where ordinary people become the source of a tall tale where it's more elaborate each time the story is told and then becomes inspiration for box office movies.

This of course isn't true but I think that was the impression that they intended to make (like the villain wearing a dark helmet and suffered through some form of disfigurement) M. Night Shamalon's Unbreakable is (in my semi-educated opinion) likely to be an inspiration for Chronicle because the story line is very similar.

The difference in Chronicle is that it has a much wider character arc from laugh out loud funny to pure wonder to the all out hero vs. villain mega battle complete with smashing buildings instead of subtlety .

Because of that you feel sympathy for the devil. I think it's a great genre smashup and I'm adding it to my movie collection.