Found-footage films have been done over and over again and while some, like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, became hits, the genre has also seen misfires such as Apollo 18 and our very own Haunted Changi. Chronicle joins the second list, albeit with a slightly more original spin.
Chronicle revolves around a high-school student (who inexplicably decides to start filming everything) named Andrew (Dane DeHaan). He is an archetypal social outcast who has close to no friends, a deadbeat dad and a bedridden mother. His only respite is his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) who tries to get him to open up more and break out of his rut. Matt’s persuasion gets Andrew to a local party where they are quickly befriended by the school’s most popular student, Steve (Michael B. Jordan). Things get interesting when the three of them find a mysterious hole in the ground in the woods near the party venue that contains a glowing crystal-like object. It causes their noses to bleed and the camera to short out. The next scene kicks off with the three of them mucking around with a baseball and this is where you find out what the commotion in the pit was all about. They now have telekinetic abilities. To sum the story up, Chronicle is basically about the three friends exploring their new powers until things get exponentially more complicated when they realize that their powers are getting stronger.
Now, movies about teenaged kids with super powers have also been done to death but what Chronicle does is a bit less hackneyed. It never tries to explain the cause or the essence of the powers, leaving it all up to your imagination. This however is the only thing that is truthfully different and for the rest of the movie, we are treated to a commonplace sci-fi movie that has shades of classics like Akira and the Gantz comics. The acting definitely won’t win any awards and quite often, you will find yourself thinking about what a jackass the main character is instead of pitying him. The characters are also not very well developed and you don’t ever really feel connected to any of them. To add to the negatives, the visuals aren’t particularly stunning either. If you can get past the shattering windows and flaming walls, you’ll see that the CGI elements are quite mediocre.
Some aspects of the found-footage techniques they used were enjoyable, though. Chronicle makes use of every camera that is around at the time of the events so we get to see an array of angles and video qualities. The way that the film cuts between the perspectives of surveillance cameras, police helicopter cams and the main camera keeps the action going at a fast pace and this really complements a lot of the scenes. Of course, the whole found-footage angle is a double edged sword and a lot of the time the movie is hindered by its own method. Many parts of the film feel like it could have been shot much better if it dropped the whole handheld camera idea. There are even segments of the movie where you can see the framework sticking out and you’ll be asking “Why was there a camera there anyway?” In fact if you look carefully, you’ll be able to find portions of the movie that just break away from the pattern as if to say, “Just throw it in there and hopefully they won’t notice.” Perhaps the whole movie didn’t really need to be in the found-footage mould and it could very well have done better as a conventional sci-fi flick.
It may be harsh to say this, but Chronicle is just not a smart film. It takes itself too seriously when it isn’t particularly groundbreaking at all. That said, however, action is still a major selling point for this movie and if you can turn off your inner critic for about two hours, you’ll find yourself being quite entertained by the high-school humor and the large scale and moderately exciting battle scenes.
