Chronicle

Because I like “Cloverfield”, I was interested in seeing this movie. I felt “Chronicle” had a good story and some good acting. I had a good experience. I will say that some choices with the cinematography affected the realism of the film. The use of handheld home movie cameras and security cameras were paramount in making the film feel genuine. When there wasn’t a shaky camera or when more than one camera was filming a scene, the established sense of realism was lost.

Unfortunately, I was watching all the Star Wars movies the week before I saw this movie. The reason why this was unfortunate was that I kept comparing Andrew to Anakin Skywalker. I would have preferred to view this movie without making a connection to another film but come to think of it, I do that anyways. The film realistically shows a troubled teen and what he would do with telekinesis. The character of Andrew is well established and we feel sad for him. His father abuses him, his mother has cancer and he is teased at school. Even though the cross coverage moment at the party took away from the realism, I like how the quality of Andrew’s footage was different from Casey’s. Steve was such a great character in the movie. He comes over to talk to Andrew, who is crying outside the party. He remembers Andrew from many years earlier despite Andrew’s unpopularity. This proves that he has a good heart. After Andrew, Steve and Matt get their powers and Andrew causes the camera to float, the movie looses a bit of its realism because the cinematography is that of any other movie. The Mormon joke did rub me the wrong way but I have heard much worse. The joke makes fun of how strange Mormons can be and as a Mormon, I can understand that. I know I am peculiar. This joke therefore is both irritating and complimentary. The first flying scene was so much fun because it really felt genuine. Their subsequent survival was quite a funny scene because of Steve. The talent show was another great sequence as was the party afterwards.

Andrew always wanted friends and popularity but his powers do not accomplish this. He threw up on Monica and the school continues to tease him. In addition, he feels that a popular guy like Steve would not be his friend if they did not share these powers. Also, Matt reveals inadvertently that he is a better friend with Andrew now that hey share powers. What Andrew wanted was friends and popularity on his own, before he became special. He feels that his new friendships and newly found popularity are phony. Steve’s death is quite tragic but this was well set up. He must be appealing in order for his death to be tragic. He had the heart to become a superhero. The apex predator reference in the script is powerful so that was a well-done element of this movie. In the hospital, we think that Andrew’s dad is sorry for what happened to Andrew. But then, we really see how ugly and messed up Andrew’s dad is on the inside. When Andrew stops his father from hitting him, it is powerful. The birthday party was a great contrast to the scene in the hospital but the editing cut between the two was not random enough. This is yet another example of how the movie tends to lose its authentic nature every once in a while. Another example is the space needle confrontation because of the use of the tourists’ cameras. The talent show and the first flying scene did wonders in contrasting this dark climax. Andrew had potential in his new life and was finally a popular person but he ends up going down a dark path because of his school problems, his mother dying and his father’s corrupt nature. Andrew sort of looks like an evil Leonardo DiCaprio the way he is lit outside the space needle. The whole climax is filmed with multiple cameras and this contrasts the cinematography that was established at the start of the film. I felt that what happened to Andrew at the end was anti-climatic. From a realistic standpoint, a climatic battle of this sort would probably have ended the way it did. On the other hand, because the climax was filmed and edited the way it was, it felt like I was watching an ordinary science fiction film and this creates that anti-climatic feeling.

“Cloverfield” was from the point of view of one camera and the editing was more random. This gave it a genuine feeling. That movie really felt like a random story caught on a home movie camera whereas “Chronicle” felt a little fabricated in a few scenes. “Chronicle” is well designed and has some great acting but decisions in post-production caused its sense of realism to be diminished. It felt like a movie script being filmed with home movie cameras. That however is the only minor flaw. The story of “Chronicle" was entertaining and that is what counts. There was drama, fun and action.

3.5 Stars