Chronicle

Chronicle(2012)

84% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 145 reviews)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by Josh Trank

Starring: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell (no relation), Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly

From: 20^th Century Fox

Here's a movie that proved to be a huge surprise to me and everyone else. I remember finding out about this late last year via an online ad and I thought it was goofy teenybopper crap, a la something like Jumper. Even after I found out it was written by Max Landis (yes, his dad is exactly who you think it is) I still had my doubts. Last year I heard him interviewed on an awesome podcast and he sounded like a guy that would write a serious movie and it wouldn't be upbeat, but as a lot of things can go wrong from script to screen... then I heard some really high praise for the movie, which wasn't what I was expecting. I finally was swayed enough to watch it on the big screen, which I did with a few other people a few days ago, and I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm sure you know the plot by now, but to go over it briefly: Three high school friends make a discovery of an unknown object and after making contact with it they discover they have telekinetic powers. However, the most maladjusted of the three, Andrew (DeHaan) explores his darker side and that's when the trouble begins...

I was taken aback by how mature and interesting this was. The three main characters are typical teenagers. Like I said, Andrew is an outcast type, who has an alcoholic father that's disabled and a mom who is also disabled due to what I presume is emphysema and that has a big impact on his life. Andrew's cousin Matt (Russell) hangs out with him but it's an uneasy relationship. They are both pals with Steve, who is a popular type that runs for class president, which he literally does. The three leave a party together and go into a hole in the ground-literally-and discover a mysterious object (thankfully not explained) which gives them telekinetic powers. At first it's all fun and goofing around. But as Andrew is a dark and moody person, he starts to use his powers for more sinister things, and you instantly have conflict; to reveal more would ruin things.

The special effects are fine for the low budget (things were so low-budget, a lot of it was filmed in South Africa, but you can't tell that was the case) and the story is always captivating and it's never boring for its short run time. The performances are also nice all around and you never get annoyed by any of the characters due to the how good the script is; even the characters that are mainly A-holes often have a scene or two where you can understand why they act the way they do. I have heard comparisons to the Star Wars prequel and that is actually true; the descent of the kid with special powers is told much better here than George Lucas did in the three Star Wars prequels, as amazing as that is due to how that should not have happened. I also heard a comparison to one of the old Superman movies (one of the good ones, don't worry) and that was also accurate.

This was actually a superhero origin story and yet one more realistic and better than most of those. Believe the hype, this is a really good and engrossing film. It may still be one of the best I see when I do my list at the end of the year for the best movies I saw in 2012. 


I'll be back Monday night with a new review.