Review of Chronicle (2012) by Keegan D — 06 Jun 2014

Chronicle is one of those rare film genres called Found footage. A genre that is presented as discovered film or lost video recordings. Examples from this genre are Project X, Cloverfeild, Paranormal Activity and many more.

However, combining a story about three teenagers getting telekinetic powers is something I have never heard of before in the Found footage genre. When I first saw the trailer to this film I was excited.

I saw the film when it first came out and I enjoyed it with my friends. Two years later, I saw it again and gave it a mixed feeling about it. The first thing that this film is lacking about are the main characters.

Andrew is your typical high school shy loser who gets the telekinetic powers, along with his cousin Matt and his new popular black friend Steven. Besides being a cliche High School loser, he's dealing with his dying cancer mother and his cliche abusive father.

The problem with this film is that everything is too cliche. Many cliche elements are used on our characters and setting like the cliche High School, the cliche bullies, the cliche loser being popular then being a loser again, and anything I missed you could tell its cliche once you watch the film.

The motivation on hoe Andrew uses his powers for evil and chaos is pretty weak and dumb. He wants to be an apex predator, but he's not being smart about using his powers. At least Light Yagami from Death Note and Lelouch from Code Geases are smart on using there power to become ruler of the world, but not this crazy apex predator.

The story however is alot similar to classic films like Carrie and Akira. Making it predictable on whats gonna happen to Andrew at the end. By the way, the third act is completely like Akira with two close friends fighting each other between good and chaos, except for the explosion of the city like Neo- Tokyo.

I know theres alot of flaws with this film, but what are the best parts of the film. Well the cinematography looks good. In fact, it might be the best cinematography in a Found footage film to date. Its not involve with one camera being used in the film, but multiple cameras.

That includes Iphone, Ipads,HD camera and many more. The telekinetic powers were pretty useful for the cameras floating around. It makes the film feel more independent on what is trying to film. The idea of Chronicle is interesting to make as a found footage film, but the characters are a little too cliche at times that makes the plot a bit immature at times.

This is not a bad in fact, the cliche moments go by fast. If a sequel to film is ever in production, make it truly a found footage superhero film.