Chronicle - A School Shooter With Superpowers I REVIEW

Chronicle - A School Shooter With Superpowers I REVIEW

(Spoiler-Free) 

By

Ainsoph

As a found footage thing this is okay. 

Its a crude peak into a not so glamurous slice of life in the united states. Im just glad we got to hear from that side too. 

Chronicle wants to be the story of how teenagers would act like if they actually got superpowers, and it mostly actually succeeds at that. I like the parts where they the concept, i like what they explored and touched upon. I like that things were explored and some of them were quite dark or unexpected. Its works as a solid modern americana myth. 

We have pleasant surprises, and others not so much. 

For one i like how its a bit character study ish. I like the idea of doing a school shooter type teenager but instead of a gun you give them superpowers. 

Sadly the handling of the found footage or video recorded format is annoying sometimes. The places the film streches logic to justify the found footage can be at times questionable:

Are there not any security cameras where they go? 

What kind of police investigation requires them to have a giant threepod camera pointed at someones hospital bed? 

Its a little distracting how this kid bought the biggest most heavy camera ever if he was just blogging. Its crazy to imply any person would buy that for just some random blogs. I guess they wanted the film to look amateur enpugh but without having to commit to too low of a quality. 

Though at some they actually switch from point of view to a different camera anf they look like wildly different equipment but the camera quality had no change at all, it would have been cool if it did, kinda missed opportunity to actually, i dont know, idealize the format they are using? but whatever i guess.

It didnt matter much because like ten minutes in the guy upgrades the camera anyway, to an actual perfect movie quality now, that was annoying and took away from the sincerity of the format. 

And there is no way this guy outright confirmed they have superpowers in front of the entire school and attrack as little attention as they did. 

Id say how they pulled the telekinetic tricks looks pretty amazing on camera, its pretty seamless vfx integration, the format really helps with that. Theres pretty decent production value here. But that flying on the sky looks pretty bad and fake, like really fake, really bad effects level, such a shame. The CG quality can be hit or miss sadly. 

On the flipside i dont like how with everything unique and realistic the movie has they still felt like inserting a big, superhero movie clímax by the third act. So far you had decided to stand out from the genre by entertaing me through character, but now you want to be like the rest by giving me a superpower fight with some destruction porn, not only its quite out of place, but feel like the movies technicals capabilities were being tested to its brink there, as the effects, and specially the main leads performance were showing their límits. The movie was looking really silly by that point. Its a shame that they went so big and ambitious when it was really not needed, now its another pile up for the holdbacks. 

Formatting and technical issues aside, this movie is everything it wants to be. Not too fake nor wildly naturalistic, but its okay. May be a little tropey but its authentic enough. I mostly bpugh the character of the three main guys, so thats something. 

I think this film makes up for good entertainment, who hasnt thought of themselves as having powers? Who wouldnt want to do stupid shit or actually something big? Thats what this movie offers, its a high relatability value and its also pretty entertaining to watch. Pretty much enjoyed myself. 

6.5/10

Support Me