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CHRONICLE

 

When I was a kid, my friends and I would often goof off as if we were superheroes. You know, jumping off and on things as if we could fly, picking up large light-weight objects and hurling them at each other while making sound effects with our mouths. You know goofing off. As we goit older, we stop playing that stuff but still contimplated what we would do if we had those various powers.

 

"Chronicle" is one of those first-person, found footage like films that are popular but rarely any good. It chronicles three teenaged boys who stumble upon super powers and, well, their kids! There aren't thinking about saving the world!

 

Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Steve (Michael B Jordan - not to be confused with the former NBA player) and Matt (Alex Russell) are three mostly normal boys that stumble upon a hole in the ground.

Before I go any furtehr, I say mostly normal, because true to everyday life, one of the boys - Andrew - has home issues that bother him everyday. His mother is dying and his father is an abusive sot. But the other two boys are okay even though Matt is Andrew's cousin and only friend.

 

While out in a field near Seattle, the come across a dark hole which, being fearless boys, they climb into with only the light of Andrew's video camera and the other boy's cell phone. While in the hole they come across a glowing, throbbing object that unbeknowingst to them has just given them super mental powes; telekinesis.

 

They soon discover their new fledgling powers while goofing off with Lego's. They make the Legos float. Soon, they advance to do other things normal teenage boys would do - raising girls skirts, etc. They also discover, the more they use their powers, the stronger they become, much like reps during a workout.

 

In a rather short period of time, they soon learn how to fly. This is actually some of teh best fiootage in the film especially when you consider the probably low budget director Josh Trank had to work with. These are superior flight sequences besting the earlier "Suoerman" films!

In whatthe boys consider a relatively mature manner, they agree to a set of rules that Matt - the smart one - devised. The main rule was not to use their powers to hurt anyone.

 

This rule in particular is one that Andrew has troble with in light of his home situation. Oh, he'd really like to hurt his dad!

 

And it is Andrew's complex personality that gives "Chronicle" its dark nuances. Andrew is - like Clark Kent - annoyed that he can't save his mother and that he can't squish his dad like a cockroach. Through all the fun the boys have, he is the one being drawn to the dark side of the force as it were.

 

In the less than 90-minutes the film runs, Trank successfully covers a wide narrative from a story and script written by Max landis (John Landis' son). More importantly, Trank makes the shakey cam, a lot less shakey.

 

DeHaan, Jordan and Russell handle their complex characters believably and amusingly; a very nice effort for relative new-comers (though Jordan is also in "Red Tails"). Furthermore, not enough can be said about the special effects - especially the flying. Whatever continuity faults are truly insignificant.

 

"Chronicle" is a really cool, remarkably believable film about three teenagers, acting like teenagers, who just happen to have superpowers. Much better than some films with budget twenty times bigger.   -- GEOFF BURTON

 

GEOFF BURTON

 

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