So since my last review I've been thinking that since i enjoyed writing it so much and has a unaminus posiive result (of one person :P) that i should try to do a review every week. Sometimes i won't have the tie to write one because of school or whatever but i'll try my best to keep this going. Also I may not want or be able to see a new movie every week so I've decided that I will alo ocasionally write a review for something new I've watched on Netflix or and older movie that I want to talk about.

Anyways here's my review of Chronicle I hope you enjoy it and please write comments on what you think of my review or share you're own opinions of the movie. And if there's anything that I can improve upon, don't be afraid to mention it but please keep i constructive :)

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Chronicle

Even though it’s just a coincidence, the beginning of my long journey with a fascination for movies just so happened to have begun at the dawn when the nerd fandom became the dominating force in Hollywood. The yearly release or fantasy, science fiction, and superhero movies have become as predictable as a troll attack on a nervous thirteen-year-olds anti gay rant vlog. And no genre has seemed more tired, formulaic and exploited than the superhero. I mean Hollywood is just knocking through every comic book hero they can find until one day all they’re left with is heroes with titles like Continuous Bile Man or God forbid Wonder Woman (JUST KIDDING please don’t hurt me!). Throw in the over used and abused ‘found footage’ technique and one would expect Chronicle to be a lazy and disorienting mess of wonder bile in both visuals and narrative. Thankfully that is not the case with this movie. Chronicle is a completely fresh and thoughtful take on the superhero genre that builds up to spectacular action scenes with real emotional weight.

*Since this is a found footage movie, don’t worry about me spoiling the movie, everything that I mention can be seen in the preview or happens right in the first ten minutes of the film, but if you’re that worried go see the film, it’s great*

Andrew Detmer, played by Dane DeHaan (True Blood and In Treatment), is one of three high school friends that gain telekinetic power after witnessing what looks like a giant glowing tentacle kidney stone from planet Krypton. The other two high school friends compile of the well-meaning douche bag, and also playing double role of Andrew’s cousin, Matt Garetty (Alex Russell) and the very likeable but oblivious Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan). Andrew buys a camera to record the events of his abusive life in hopes of somehow stopping it. But the camera quickly becomes a psychological barrier between him and, well, the rest of the world. Then soon the friends find their lives spinning out of control and their friendships tested as they begin to embrace their darker sides. And it doesn’t take long before sh!t starts getting real.

This is probably the best and most inventive utilization of the found footage technique since Paranormal Activity or even District 9. The makers quickly realized and that everyone now a day has a camera in their phone and that the kids’ powers can actually hold and hover the camera around them, giving a third person perspective, so why not use that to their advantage? Some people may call this cheating, I call it ingenuity. And really, this is the best way to shoot a found footage film, because one can get the aesthetics of the first person perspective and the cinematic experience of a real movie. And this is a real movie; there are effects, big sets, and real production value. When we live in a world where the first person camera is easily abused, either to cover the lack of talent, budget or both (see The Devil Inside), producers forget the potential of massive aesthetics it presents (Blair Witch Project the exception to previous cons). It’s nice to see that first time movie director Josh Frank had such a pure and thoughtful purpose for this choice of filming method. This filming perspective is also probably has the most emotional and narrative value than any other film of this kind, not only symbolizing the barriers the main character puts up, but also the barriers that everyone else raises in front of people.

The movie also forgoes the stereotypical Peter Parkers, Bruce Waynes and Clark Kents in favour of a more realistic, though cynical, depiction of super powered people. Mainly the movie realizes that when teenage boys are given more power than everyone else, they’ll do what any other Beavis and Butthead would do, abuse and exploit it to gain petty hits in ego and popularity. Then say if one of those teens is abused and bullied and then given the power to literally control anything, he’s not going to be kissing any interracial babies while receiving an oversized key to the city made of chocolate anytime soon. The movie depicts a fairly accurate depiction of public high school in that you can be popular one minute and stuffed into a locker the next, emphasizing the wild and unpredictable emotions of teenagers. Andrews journey then is like watching the motives towards a school shooting, except the school is a city and the gun is unbelievably strong telekinesis, or meganesis as I like to call it.

So the movie is like if Magneto was raised in a public school instead of the Holocaust and on that note, the movie also raises the question of nature versus nurture. Andrew is said to be a good, though passive, kid and the audience even gets flashes of that through the second act of the film, but his environment and circumstances push him too far and he makes some bad choices until he finally snaps, like a sentient OCD Roomba living in a cat lady’s house and while cleaning the stray kitty litter is gets a taste for blood. Andrew even goes as far as mentioning Darwin’s survival of the fittest theories as motives for his dominance over others. All the while the other two teenagers treat their powers differently and with much more respect due to their better lifestyles.

The film is not perfect though, which is unfortunate because it could have been a master in its genre. The effects aren’t really up to the modern par and it does ruin your emersion, but only until you realise that you’re watching a superhero movie and you’re sucked right back in again. There is a love interest subplot that doesn’t really go anywhere except to serve as an extra camera angle in the climax. Also no one expect Andrew and Matt (not as much) is given a significant character arc, but at least everyone is acting like a three dimensional character and acting the way they should if nothing but to keep the main characters’ development going. And the origin of their superpowers is the one gimmie of the movie, but that doesn’t really matter once you learn that you can freaking fly!

Those are all nitpicks though that can’t undermine the spectacular third act that carries the emotional weight of a thousand emo band fans on the day of Princess Diana’s funeral. The inventive use of footage, cutting, downtown Seattle scenery and environment makes for a battle not easily forgotten. The use of blood can be applauded as well for a means of communicating drama instead of spectacle that so many other movies fall into. For what I have witnessed in this movie, I have learned that for the coming Spiderman, Batman, Avengers and Superman movies that they better step up their A-game or start shaking in their latex suits because everyone’s expectations has just been raised to infinity and beyond.

P.S. I saw Phantom Menace in 3D and there's no point. The 3D is just as sh!tty as the movie an the only reason I saw it was a staff thing for charity for children and I don't even like those buggers. Who says I don't suffer for the common good? XP