Review of Chronicle (2012) by Halfwelshman — 16 Sep 2012

Chronicle has what many lesser found footage films lack. The genre has a history of sacrificing character for style, of using hand-held filming to hide a lack of budget. This film has very strong performances from the three leads Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B.

Jordan (especially DeHaan) who all play interesting, well-developed characters that you enjoy spending time with, and the film's entertaining premise of the three highschool friends gaining superpowers after the discovery of a mysterious object provides some good laughs and fun spectacle, particularly in the scenes where the boys are learning to control their new gifts.

The film also creatively gets round the chief weakness of the found footage genre - who's holding the camera? (the way they do this is a highlight which I won't spoil here). Like Cloverfield, Chronicle doesn't try to provide a concrete explanation for the odd goings on that we witness, but this mostly works for the film, and you should be able to fill in the gaps yourself (at least until an inevitable sequel surfaces which will doubtless expand on the film's universe).

Disappointingly, the final act of Chronicle is pretty poor. The action becomes all-consuming and repetitive, the characters are reduced to conduits for the filmmakers to spend their remaining budget rather than anyone you can care about anymore, and the presence of one of the secondary characters is seemingly only to have someone else holding a camcorder.

In other words, the film becomes just like all the films it has, up to the final act, been surpassing. Though the finale is an overblown, flaccid bore, the rest of Chronicle is a riot, and feels pleasingly original for a film that is part of a filmmaking craze that has long outstayed its welcome.

Here's hoping the sequel builds on the considerable successes we find here, though without Josh Trank's sturdy direction (he's reportedly been headhunted to helm bigger superhero fare), it remains to be seen whether a second instalment will become too big and dumb.