Chronicle | Movie Review

CHRONICLE

Release Date: 01 February 2012

Genre: Adventure / Fantasy

Running Time: 1 Hour 25 Minutes

Director: Josh Trank

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael Kelly

New technologies and social communities allow us to record, post and comment on every second of our lives, sharing our every emotion and opinion with the world, no matter how mundane.

For three high school classmates who suddenly gain superpowers from a mysterious substance, the chronicle of their ordinary lives is about to take on extraordinary turn. Initially they use their powers to play innocent pranks on each other and people around them, but soon they gain confidence and learn to control their powers better to take on more difficult tasks.

Their newfound sense of immortality and impunity will force them to evaluate their own morality to ultimately decide where to draw the line about how far they should go.

Contain spoilers
Storyline

The beginning started telling Andrew's (Dane Dehaan) day-to-day life. How he gets bullied in school, how his alcoholic addict father beats him up, and how his family struggle financially to support his sick mother. All in which, he managed to video record it down in his newly bought camera. Though, I really didn't understand why he had the sudden urge to record everything (!) down. They failed to explain why after he was found mentioning about "I will record all of this down" to his dad right at the start of the show.

Soon, Andrew, Matt (Alex Russell) and Steve (Michael B. Jordon), found themselves having some telekinetic talent - to lift themselves up into their air and fly (This was damn cool!), and to move objects around using a control of their mind.  Andrew loses control over his powers when his emotions are not kept in check. And that's what happened when he accidentally used lightning to strike Steve; to hurt everyone around him.

"Power ruins people's personality," which is mostly true. And that is what is shown clearly in this film. People who are being bullied in school and abuse at home (having two at the same time) like Andrew here, will one day just *burst*. The result of it could be disastrous.  After all, the most quiet people around you might just be the most dangerous people. They're like a time bomb, ticking away. If not quiet, having too much power might just corrupt our mind, even the best of people.

Contain spoilers
Verdict

The movie goes on through a live camera view - documentary style. In Chronicle though, it was not shown on those shaky hand-held cameras but quite a good one at that. One thing for sure is that you won't get a headache throughout the screening time. Though, the one bad thing about it is that, you'll feel as though the storyline is incomplete.

For example, they failed to tell how these three high school students gain their telekinetic powers. Yes, they did show that they've found some strange alien devise deep underground, but the camera cuts off when something attacked them deep down the ground. Hence, no story on how did they get the power. At the end of the film, Matt did mentioned about "finding what happened to them no matter what happens" and then the film sorts of just ended. o.o

The powers that the three main casts portray were highly sought for. Especially the flying part. The scenes effect and casts played their parts believably. The effects look real, that for some time, it felt like I was watching a live documentary. 

Contain spoilers
The End

Andrew mistakenly use his power to throw off a short gun in his attempt to rob a petrol station, causing the shortgun to go off and goes *boom*. He'd gotten himself into the hospital, supposedly a coma but when his dad came over and again, mock him in his sleep, he woke up and cause a great hell of a havoc in the hospital and around the city. He looked like an unconscious zombie when he did so. Burn marks all over his face and arms. Arms and legs wrapped in bandages. Eyes unfocused.  Thank Gods it wasn't a scary show, or else I would have been hiding behind my bag lol.

Matt did all he could to stop Andrew but to no avail. Last resort was to simply kill Andrew by putting a spear through him. It was quite disturbing scene. And the end of the end, was again those "wtf it ended?" moments..haha!

Irony
A girl in the film who Matts' took to a liking, takes videos for her blog. The irony.

Ratings: 2.5/5

"The display of telekinetic skills were one of the best. Same goes to the effects created in the film. Really believable."

This premiere screening is a courtesy of ChurpChurp. And thanks to Choulyew for the tickets :)