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Ever since the breakout success of 1999's The Blair Witch Project, the found footage film has become a subgenre in its own right. In a similar vein to Blair Witch, the Paranormal Activity series has found great financial success with their comparatively meagre budgets, and Cloverfield in 2008 proved that, even on a larger scale, the handycam aesthetic can deliver effective thrills when employed by filmmakers who have a solid understanding of the style. Josh Trank's Chronicle represents an evolution of the found footage genre, taking the character as cameraman conceit to interesting new places, and marking the director as a young talent worth monitoring.

Chronicle differs from predecessors like Cloverfield in the sense that this handycam footage isn't presented as 'found' per se, but rather is a stylistic and narrative choice which puts a refreshingly original spin on a well overdone story: the superhero origin. After encountering a strange, glowing object in a deep underground cave, high schoolers Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Matt (Alex Russell) and Steve (Michael B. Jordan) discover they have telekinetic powers which allow them to move objects with their mind. Matt considers the powers to be like a muscle, which can be strengthened through training, and after beginning small eventually the trio build superhuman strength and, to their delight, the ability to fly. The special effects betray a small budget at times, but the initial flying sequences are breathlessly entertaining, and the pure joy of the characters makes them more effective than most mega-budget blockbusters. These are meant to be regular kids, and although the story loses focus as the scale grows towards the climax, the early scenes are surprisingly genuine and affecting. But make no mistake, this is an origin story (one which doesn't necessarily beg for a sequel however), and Trank and his co-writer Max Landis (son of John Landis) use the visceral, in-your-face nature of the found footage to breathe life into a genre which has come dangerously close to wearing out its welcome in the past decade.

As is the case with almost all science-fiction, a lot more can be read into Chronicle than what is happening on the surface. Aside from the excitement of fighting and flying about, there is a very real human story at work, with a lot of teenage life's triumphs and tragedies. Trank and Landis clearly poured their own experiences into the film, with the three leads seeming like people from everyone's high school years. Added to this is a nice element of self-reflexivity as Andrew, an unpopular misfit, uses his camera to define himself, and how he sees the world. The old adage about writing what you know seems to ring true in the case of Chronicle, and seeing Andrew learn to move his camera in more dynamic ways thanks to his new found powers is perhaps the tiniest hint of autobiography from Trank. The film is filled with subtle aspects such as this which will probably be missed by most, but thankfully simply taking Chronicle at face value is a rewarding experience, proving that the superhero origin story is not dead, it just needs a good shake up from time to time.

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I last saw this film over a decade ago, and it was one of my earliest introductions to the first-person POV scene. I also vividly remember being impressed by it, so much so that I kept thinking about the story and its characters for weeks afterwards.

It had definitively left its mark, and seeing this again after eleven years, my impression seems not to have changed even slightly. I loved this movie back in my childhood, and that same admiration has carried to the present times, as it seems.

Albeit It hurts to see this being film so underrated, this certainly deserves more love. It is one of the most overlooked as well as underappreciated science fiction features of the last decade!

P. S. Dane DeHaan as Andrew was freaking incredible here, one of the most effective Anti-Hero parts ever written and played on screen, period.

Chronicle is an engaging offspring of two very separate genres. Reality based horror / thriller movies and Super Hero's. Never would you have imagined a super hero origins movie being shot with a hand-held camera. They are often related to high octane action sequences and graphics and CGI. Well that thing doesn't change here either but the treatment is creative and thoroughly engaging. If suppose paranormal activity and any super hero movie were to mate, their offspring would have been called "Chronicle".

I think by now the "handheld camera" trick in films is becoming a little stale. Sure, it can help smaller productions and can make some films visually spectacular. However, it seems that it is used in way too many films, usually horror flicks at that. Chronicle, however, is nothing less than a masterpiece at not only the "found footage" style, but is also a brand new way of making a superhero movie, mainly because the people it centers on are far from heroes anyway. They are portrayed as everyday people. People with real problems and psychologies. All the larger than life characters of other sci fi or super hero movie is nowhere to be seen here.

Read the rest of the review at : http://devlifeintechnicolor.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/chronicle-a- realistic-take-on-sci-fi-action/

Chronicle is one of those films that kind of snuck up on everyone and may very well have slid under the radar if not for a somewhat dead weekend in February and good word of mouth. And it's rightfully earned. After last weeks fantastic The Grey, the new year continues to produce good film with one of the most interesting takes on the comic book film in a long time.

Now, you might be tempted to blow this off as another low budget, shaky cam movie ala Paranormal Activity, but you'd be wrong. Firstly, this is a film that establishes it's lead "camera men" as experienced with a camera, so shaky cam is mostly gone from the film. We also have some other rather interesting excuses for better than average faux-doc filming, namely the main character's ability to levitate his camera around to get multiple angles. Suffice to say, the camera work is mostly good and legitimized so it never feels like it's too good. So, if you fear that this is just another poorly made hand-held excursion, fear not. This is a very well made hand-held excursion.

The story itself is nothing terribly new or original. A group of teens inexplicably get super powers from some weird, glowy crystals and that's about it. But where most stories about super powered people might find them fighting evil or exploring human nature, Chronicle takes it's time to show a more realistic approach. Our characters play pranks, gain popularity, and try to just have fun. Also realistic are how the powers come out in other forms, manifesting the inner turmoil of one troubled teen who becomes too powerful for his own good. Although the story may not be wholly original, the script is pretty good and the films take on both the hand-held film sub genre and the super powered sub genre is good. This is a more grounded look at what might happen should we find ourselves with power we can't understand. We don't get noble causes or some epic quest to save the world, we simply get teens who are being teens, albeit with telekinetic abilities. I read this film compared to Carrie, and it's somewhat accurate, only this is Carrie x5.

It helps that the leads do a great job in their respective roles. They seem naturals as the teens, and DeHann in particular is great as the troubled Andrew. We can see what's to come, but when his turn finally comes, most noticeably in a scene involving a spider, it's a frightening wake up call to the true nature of the forces at work here. There is some reality in this film, and it's frightening to think what some might do with that kind of power if given it. Even with that last bit of darkness at the end of the film, it's fun, and shown in a very intimate way. Being so up close and personal with the action is exhilarating and there are moments when the film even feels like a ride for a time. There are several good scenes displaying the use of the teens power, but the final 15 minutes are some of the most exciting, super powered moments of any film of it's kind. The fact that it feels more realistic than, say, something like Iron Man makes it feel that much more exciting. It's like watching a high school fight, but pushed to the 10th degree.

Suffice to say, Chronicle was a pleasant surprise. It's the kind of film you hope to walk into. As a fan of comic book films, it was especially pleasing as it really shakes the genre and tries, successfully I might add, to do something very different. It could have been a complete disaster with typical hand-held filming and a typical story. But the smart and creative take on the genre makes this another in the great beginning of 2012.

One day a loner kid whose mother is dying and his injured former-firefighter dad abuses him decides to film everything. That ostracizes him more from him peers because he runs around everywhere with some giant camera on this shoulder.

After a party his philosophizing cousin and another friend ask him to film what they found- a large perfectly circular hole in the ground. They jump into it and follow along the cave to find some alien looking giant glowing mineral. Something happens and the the filming is interrupted.

When the filming continues after some time we find them in the backyard controlling a baseball with their minds. Since the incident, they've developed telekinesis. At first with small objects, then larger ones, then themselves. They take their powers public bothering innocent people in stores and parking lots. Then they lean how to levitate and eventually fly.

When the poor loner kid's mom is one the verge of dying, the kid puts on a protective suit and tries to rob a gas station to get meds for his mom. On his way out, the attendant shoots at him; an explosion ensues and the kid catches on fire. He ends up in the hospital. Even there, and after the mom's death, the father will blame him and try to abuse him. The kid loses it completely. Having realized he's an apex predator and that the strong destroy the weak, he's now ready to unleash his powers and destroy all who get in his way. It's left to his cousin to try and stop him.

Chronicle overall has a good idea. It's entertaining to watch the kids develop and tame their powers and experimenting with them out there in the world. The filming is part POV, part third person because fortunately, the kid learns to control cameras and has them swarming around him. Thankfully, even when he has his old camera, the quality of the footage is excellent- unlike those poor bastards in horror movies who are forever condemned to film stuff in dismal quality grainy video. So at least that makes the POV stuff tolerable. But Chronicle retains the weaknesses of that kind of movie. It's boring at times, the portrayal of relationships overall is pretty poor- the relationship between the cousin and some girl is just awful, and eventually you end up with people just screaming at each other. Still, the entertaining aspects outweigh the negatives and this movie offers something we don't see often.