You have spent most of your life being the butt of everyone’s jokes. You have spent every day being beaten by bullies at school and thugs on the street. You have spent every waking moment being unloved by your closest friends and family. Then one day, you effectively gain the powers of a God. The question is, do you use your powers for the good of humanity, or do you use them to claim vengeance on the world that had wronged you?
That was essentially the question behind this film ‘Chronicle’, where we follow Andrew’s (Dane DeHaan) path to the darkside after he, his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and friend Steve (Michael B. Jordon) after they gain powers from what I believe was a meteor.
First, before anything else, I need to talk about Andrew. DeHaan pulls off a brilliant performance as the tormented youngster, and you know how I love tragic villains; all Andrew wants is for life to go his way for once, to be popular, for his mother (Who is severely ill) to get better, for his dad to stop being abusive, to actually feel wanted.
It’s a great change of pace to follow the character that becomes the villain of the film, rather than follow the hero. We get to see the background of the villain from scratch, we see the situations and the emotions of the character, we see the reasoning behind him. By the time he snaps we, the audience, care so much about him. We see, as the film progresses, how the power slowly corrupts Andrew. We don’t want to see him hurt, but we know he can’t win.
The other characters are also likeable. We see Matt develop as a character, from avoiding his family ties to Andrew to looking out for him, from Steve developing a close friendship with Andrew, Andrew’s abusive father, his sick mother. You get a decent view of all the characters and get quite a bit of background, albeit mainly from Andrew’s point of view.
The acting is fairly decent, as I have said DeHaan was remarkable, while Russell and Jordon were also really good. Some of the supporting cast members are either poor or over the top, but nothing seriously awful.
The little things please me as well. The main bit being the first person view from the camera. The angle has been done before, as we all know, with films like ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’ prime examples. But I do like how they’ve done it, how they swap between different cameras to get different viewpoints. Not only that, but it’s the quality of the cameras being used. From Andrew’s (First camera) low quality, to Casey’s (Ashley Hinshaw) high quality, from the different types of mobile phones, even the CCTV footage is spot on. I really did love how they used the cameras.
The cinematography is also really good as well, especially when Andrew uses his powers; how the camera moves through the air is really effective. I suppose it’s more to do with the editing rather than the camera work, or the special effects team, but either way it’s really good.
The special effects is what it truly comes down to. Now, half the time I feel that the effects were really good, some of the best. The telekinesis, flight, the climactic battle scene were really good. However, the other half the time, the effects were the worst I’ve ever seen. Half the effects look really fake, and that’s not what I want to see in this film, especially the dreadfull greenscreen at the end.
The ending felt very anticlimactic as well. It gave us some closure and I can see where they were going with it, but at the same time it felt incomplete and lacklustre.
But overall, this was a really good film. I was worried that it wasn’t up to scratch, but thankfully I was proven wrong. The effects are mediocre, but the characters are great, the story is brilliant, the point of view from the camera was a great touch, this film surpassed all expectations to deliver a fantastic piece of entertainment.
With this amount of success, you feel that a sequel is inevitable. I’m not too sure that’s a good idea, but even if there were any ideas floating, what would it be about? Would the government get Andrew, examine him and try to incorporate his abilities into someone else? Someone who will go on to be the villain?...Wait...no! Stop! Wait!
Chronicle 2:
The Reckoning
Expected 2014
Son of a bitch!
(P.S. I am obviously not part of the Chronicle crew and therefore have no idea what the sequel will involve or what the title is. Yes there is actually a sequel in the works)
Also remember to tell me what your favourite, most awesome one liners are for the public’s choice list!
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