Chronicle, Josh Trank (Dir.)

Amidst the hype surrounding, most noteably, the new Marvel releases The Avengers and The Amazing Spiderman (particularly following the world's exposure to their latest trailers via the Superbowl) it is refreshing to see an original entry into the superhero - or at least 'super-powers' - genre. Where both Marvel releases have a platform of preceding films, big name casts and iconic characters recognized the world over, Chronicle relies on a concept alone - and there's no doubt its an intriguing one. 


The film follows, primarily, Andrew (Dane DeHaan) a shy and troubled teenager as well as his cousin Matt (Alex Russel) and coolest-guy-in-school Steve (Michael B. Jordan, who has covered significantly more screen time than his co-stars having starred in The Wire - and is of no relation to the Space Jam star). The three students stumble upon a crater in the woods, having strayed away from some sort of rave, in which they find a presumably extra-terrestrial entity which bestows upon them telekinetic powers. So far, it sounds very much like any superhero origins story. However, it is how the three of them react to their new-found abilities that makes this film stand out. The following scenes depict Andrew, Matt and Steve getting up to relatively harmless mischief as they learn to use their powers - not to mention a truly inspired scene involving the interruption of a game of football 30,00 feet in the air by a passenger jet. By this point it's already clear that this film is trying to do something different - unlike, for example Kickass which tackles relatively similar themes. In the early scenes of Chronicle it feels like a very real attempt to depict how real people would react to acquiring such abilities. 


At this point, Trank could have introduced some sort of superhero plot line which would have been a more obvious but no doubt safer approach, and nonetheless had an interesting film on his hands. The success of this film, however, is that he doesn't. The film begins to take a darker turn, as Andrew embraces not only his powers but what he soon sees as his superiority over the people around him. This sets up a CGI-fueled finale that is an appropriate display of the great responsibility that comes with great power (perhaps it's not so different to the Marvel stories after all...)

There is little explanation given for how these telekinetic powers come about or what the mysterious object that produces them is, but this is of no real concern and is clearly not the point of the film. The handheld camera-style format, often pointlessly or ineffectively used in science-fiction, is put to good use and the three leads give mostly convincing performances (that suffer slightly from some needlessly hyperbolic back-stories) that will surely provide them with a platform for future roles. The finale comes about rather suddenly and could have benefited from a more gradual build up, as it is in fact the more low key scenes that are the most absorbing. Nonetheless, thanks to its unique approach, Chronicle is an undeniable, if not unanticipated, success and a welcome addition to its genre - a well that you would be forgiven for considering dry.


Etep
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