Chronicle (and a hint of the Avengers).

Back when I saw Chronicle in early February I called it the best superhero movie yet. Although it didn't have the spandex costumes somehow it seemed to get what  superheroes were all about practically better than all other superhero films I'd seen. Now that I'm able to actually sit down with the film and take notesin celebration at seeing the Avengers yesterday which I'll review as soon as I can sit down with it, I'll see just how well this holds up...Enjoy!



Chronicle for me is better than Avengers for one reason - the big final battle in Avengers was huge and epic no doubt but had most of the characters reduced to fighting simple grunts and although each character got a highlight scene or at least moment, I don't think in an action setting a character can really shine without having their own definitive 'boss battle' and even worse it was clear some characters were a little more redundant than others. And I obviously recognise that the Avengers are a team effort but even with Loki, none of the Avengers really had much of a showdown with him, he just got tossed around by the Hulk and that was that. So the fact that Chronicle leads to something like a fifteen minute long showdown between the two characters as they hurl buses into each other and smash each other through buildings I just can't help but feel like, 'that is how it's fucking done!' that is how a comicbook movie should close. And I guess that is a huge reason why I just have so much love for this film and ended up feeling so disappointed with the Avengers.

Chronicle is another movie in the long string of 'found footage' movies designed to have an almost documentary like feel made famous arguably by the Blair Witch Project. And I really hate these films, they are normally just cheap and shitty but in Chronicle's case it really works, the self shot nature allows them to hide their smaller budget allowing the director to create some of the most epic superhero action I've ever seen on screen and due to the nature of what unfurls eventually the film allows itself the freedom to break practically all the handycam rules and break some other rules with little explanation and little complaining from my end.

The film centres around Andrew, a bullied high schooler who decides to start filming his life. He is abused both at school and at home and really by anyone he ever meets. His mother is also dying. This guys life almost completely mirrors mine. Eventually he and his friend Matt along with another teenager Steve seem to by chance all get their lives turned upside down as they find a mysterious artifact in a hole in the ground. Switching the film from your more basic found footage film into more a superhero origin story with much of the film being probably a rather realistic depiction of what would happen if three average teenagers found themselves with superpowers for some initially funny results which leads the way for things to get much more serious and dark as they get stronger and stronger. Raising many questions about identity, which is in constant crisis as a young adult.

What Chronicle really surprised me with is that it never explains a whole lot, never to the point where it harms the movie or you're confused as to what is going on but Hollywood is used to giving essay long explanations for absolutely everything so no one has to think. Although there are a lot of things implied throughout the film (and that is me implying that you have the brain power to put two and two together which Hollywood seems to think most cinemagoers don't) or the film just theorises with itself without ever giving answers, so things like the source of Matt, Steve and Andrew's power is shown but never actually explained. I guess they took the whole 'show don't tell' just a little too literally. And since the film isn't bogged down by the burden of having to explain everything to the assumed idiots in the audience the pacing is really good because it just gets on with it and even leaves room for a few twists along the way.

As far as multiplex films go Chronicle had a tiny budget, only just over ten million. So although it's still  CGI and I still think CGI looks laughably fake, well considering Avengers was made for about twenty times that although the scale of their action sequences are much, much bigger I don't think the Avenger's looked twenty times better than Chronicle in the special effects and action department.

Chronicle in general is just a great looking film and extremely well directed. I really can't hit home enough just how excellent the action set pieces are and how fun and creative the showcases of their superpowers are. It also has easily some of the best flying sequences on film and probably the closest on screen adaptation at an actual superhero one on one brawl. And trust me, this film is absolutely badass - the final twenty or so minutes are some of the most glorious cinema you're ever going to see.

The acting is great, although I may be wrong, everyone here is practically an unknown to further permeate the 'reality' feel but it seems so wrong that they are unknowns because they are so good, these guys should be destined for great things.

If there is one thing that annoys me about Chronicle is that it does that thing where it brings something out of reality, into reality (in this case superpowers) in a reality where they aren't well known. If this was a real reality, at least one of these kids would read comics, they wouldn't need to go onto Wikipedia to know what telekinesis is. And although this has been a trope of these kind of films forever, it still annoys the shit out of me.

So do I recommend it? Chronicle is one of my favourite films and for me it is near perfect, it never seems to be held back by its multiplex standard low budget and although some of the more hard hitting twists obviously lose some of their clout with multiple viewings the film still manages to be badass, great fun and probably the best comic book movie out there. This is just a masterpiece, if you haven't seen this film, go and correct that. Now.

Think About It!

-Locke