Review of Chronicle (2012) by Zoezoezoe — 13 Feb 2012

With a cringe on my face and bag of lollies in hand, I prepared myself for another handy-cam filmed cliche teenage superhero film. Sigh. I was willing to give Chronicle a chance to be better than just another Paranormal Activity film, but it failed. The film starts out having you feel sorry for senior student Andrew (Dane DeHaan) as he sets his camera up to catch his abusive father in action. The story then begins to unfold as Andrew, his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and their newly made friend, Steve (Micheal B Jordan), wander into the woods and down a hole in the ground. I know that in this bit I had hope for it as they show an organism within a glowing blue stone that reminded me of the 'black oil' from the X-Files, but they didn't further on this at all through the film. Obviously the boys gain supernatural telekinesis powers form this glowing stone. Things unwind and are quite boring as the boys powers strengthen, they learn to fly and become popular with the ladies. At this point I was so stressed about how un-entertaining the film was, but then it got a tiny bit better. Andrew, being the strongest of the group, takes his powers to the next level. Being edged on by the abuse form his father and slowly dying mother, he believes he is at the top of the food chain with his new found power. Although, just when you think they weren't going to add in the cliche of having 'super hero suits', it happens. I don't want to ruin the ending for you, but it does getting a little exciting but still a little overdone as the film winds down with a very anti climactic ending. It had the chance to change my view on hand-cam style films and bring something new to the table, but I think it was overdone even when Cloverfield was released.

Chronicle is mainly aimed for teeny boppers who are easily amazed, or people like me who were bored and decided to go to the cinema willing to give a super hero film a go. All I can say is, Chronicle sure did do a good job of having me on the edge of my seat feeling stressed and slightly pre-occupied with everything but the screen.