Chronicle

The first time I heard about this film about two months ago it was described to me as a Cloverfield meets X-Men hybrid. From the offset, I was obsessed. Chronicle, which tells the story of three Seattle teenagers, aspiring class president Steve (Michael B. Jordan) and cousins Matt (Alex Russell) and the meek Andrew (Dane DeHaan) who develop telekinetic abilities after coming into contact with a pulsating (and ultimately unexplained)…how would you describe it? Giant plant-like figure that looks like a cross between something out of Halo and the Super Mario Bros. game series. Steve, Matt and Andrew do what any normal group of teenage guys would do; make stuffed animals float to scare an innocent, and therefore extremely easily scared girl, punk someone by moving their car across the parking lot and make a rogue leaf blower accidentally blow up cheerleaders skirts. But it can’t all be fun and games right?

To anyone that’s seen the trailer or read about Chronicle this is nothing new, but as the film unravels we also witness Andrew’s mental state do the same. The most troubled out of the three and also the most developed character, we witness his abusive relationship with his father (Michael Kelly) bullies in school, and with girls. Or lack thereof. It is in the form of Andrew mostly how Chronicle separates itself from the other superhero/superpower tripe we’ve been force fed over the last few years (Green Lantern springs directly to mind here), the film’s special effects aren’t exactly incredible, but Chronicle remains gritty and witty throughout, and contains dare I say it, a lot more heart than most will be expecting.

Chronicle is ultimately more Bryan Singer’s X-Men than Brett Ratner’s if anything (thank fuck) but even that comparison doesn’t seem fair as it is mostly unlike anything I’ve seen before. The main characters are both believable and extremely likeable, the plot line drifts from the generic to the dynamic and the climax, for me, was extremely satisfying.

See it now.

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