In the last few years, the found footage genre has seen everything from gigantic monsters tearing apart New York City to some seriously spooky duvet cover action. And just when you think you’d seen it all, along comes Chronicle.
Three high school friends find themselves equipped with super powers, after discovering a hole in the ground and climbing into it. The super powers revolve primarily around tele-kinetic energy, so they can fly, move cars and pull spiders apart. All is going well with our our new super heroes until one starts getting a little bit dark and starts to lose control. What follows is his journey to the dark side and plenty of destruction and follows to boot. Can he be stopped? Does the video camera ever run out of batteries? Will anyone ask is that a bird or a plane?
The found footage genre can be really, really effective. As for Chronicle? Well it is absolutely effective…to a point. The later half of the movie, when things are really kicking off, starts to leave the genre down, not the movie. Up until that point you know exactly who is holding the camera and it is entirely convincing, yet rocking a completely unbelievable plot. The finale itself just seems to have forgotten what genre it’s in as nobody is holding a camera. I accept that a bunch of cameras were grabbed in one scene, but it just doesn’t add up. The same goes for the security cameras that hit the screen from time to time. They just remove you from the complete illusion of what the movie is trying to portray. The narrative struggles a bit to keep everything going with the multiple cameras, as opposed to one camera ala Cloverfield. Chronicle might well have worked far better as a “normal” movie. That said, Chronicle is really enjoyable.
The cast are, in Hollywood terms, for the best part unknowns. But Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B.Jordan are incredibly likeable and thoroughly believable as 3 high schoolers who have discovered something out of this world. All have quite different backgrounds in the movie, the quiet cousin, the one with an dying mother and an alcoholic father and the rich one. That said, once they grasp their super powers, a chemistry develops between them that is rather brilliant. And grasp their super powers they do. And whilst we’d all like a few super powers, the movie excels at highlighting the fact, that mere mortals would struggle to contain these new found abilities.
Story wise though, is another kettle of super powers altogether. At times; as previously mentioned, you are left wondering who’s holding the camera. You’ll also wonder “What?” and “Why” from time to time, as parts of it make no reasonable sense, even as unbelievable as the story is. For instance, who in their right mind would jump into a growling hole in the ground? And the girl? What's she there for? Just another camera?
The set pieces in Chronicle are something extraordinary. With a number of brilliantly played out sequences including the best flying bus you’ll ever see, this movie will certainly have you smiling and gasping for breath on occasion. And there’s no shortage of them either. Using the Sky as an American football field, is brilliantly executed and a really fresh and original idea. And to the movies credit, the set pieces are entirely convincing. So much so, that you’d expect these in a movie with a far bigger budget.
Plot holes and shortcomings aside, Chronicle does actually work and it brings something different to the found footage genre. At times it’s thrilling and it’s finale is spectacular. Definitely worth a watch.
