Chronicle

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this film. Excellent directing, screenplay, cinematography and editing. Casting and performances were perfect, especially Dane DeHaan, who's screen presence is incredible in this film. The simplistic teen-target audience I understand, but I would've liked this to be a bit more mature. Still, a nice little gem and a well deserved 8/10 from me.

The next in a long line of "found footage" flicks that have been flooding our cinemas over the last few years, Chronicle breaks free of the usual constraints within that sub genre to concoct a truly memorable sci-fi thriller. Retracing the steps of three teenage friends who are gifted with telekinesis after a chance encounter with something (intelligently, the movie never stipulates what exactly), the story focuses on the varying paths they take with their new found talent, but not until they have had some juvenile fun with it first. This is an amazingly accomplished debut feature for writer-director Josh Trank (who co-penned the script with Max "son of John" Landis); his technical veracity is utterly mind-blowing – especially when you consider the shoestring funds he had to work with – and his narrative pacing is impeccable. The icing on the already yummy cake is the marvellous CGI that allows our protagonists to fly, crush cars and stop baseballs in mid air – all seamlessly and photo-realistically. Chronicle is a tremendous achievement in low-budget, big-concept filmmaking.

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/

I'm normally not a big fan of the handycam filming technique. In the beginning it was all new and okay but personally I think they should stop that technique. It doesn't do movies any good. Not that Chronicle is a bad movie though. It's definitely something else then the usual superhero movies that we see so much lately. Here three kids get telekinetic super powers after discovering a strange thing underground. What starts as a bit of fun quickly escalates in catastrophes. The story is easy to follow. It's different then the usual action heroes that use their powers to fight evil. The actors are all quite young and are not bad. Thinking about what they do with their powers makes me realize that I would probably try the same things. But it's all fiction. So all in all it's an entertaining movie to watch.