Thursday 9 February 2012

Chronicle [Review]

Various arguments have circled the web and blogosphere concerning the found footage genre…

“It’s overdone and uninspired!”

“It’s a refreshing and whimsical form of direction!”

…and so on and so forth. The two most notable examples of this genre prior to Chronicle are 1999’s The Blair Witch Project and 2008’s Cloverfield - both films I enjoyed greatly. And yes, this enjoyment was greatly aided by the found footage aspect. Surely then, you might argue, Chronicle should have plenty to merit a great review purely on the basis of its camerawork. Sadly, this isn’t the case.

Writer/director Josh Trank and co-writer Max Landis have meshed a fair few genre staples here, possibly hoping to pull a variety of demographics simultaneously. There’s comedy, action, sci-fi, teen angst, and of course the found footage ingredient that propels the entire nature of the film. Our three leads - the broken-childhood Andrew (Dane DeHaan), his despairingly analytical cousin Matt (Alex Russell), and wildly popular Steve (Michael B. Jordan) - stumble upon a mysterious object deep underground that bestows them with all manner of superpowers.


It’s not long before one of the three goes slightly off the rails - try to guess which one - but first the trio have some fun; from scaring children in Toys ‘R’ Us with floating bears to lifting girls’ skirts with a leafblower, it’s a refreshing change from the usual ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ shtick. It’s also all in stark contrast to the second half of the film, when things get fatally serious as the trio are torn apart by the power they’ve been granted. The fact that they were never the best of friends (Steve and Andrew had barely met) before they were bound together by power works well, and emphasises the reasons for the later events of the film.

There’s a handful of magnificent setpieces - particularly when the boys learn they can fly, and race through the clouds high above Earth - and the story is fairly gripping, if not anything unique. But the found footage mechanic almost ruins Chronicle; Trank seems to yearn to show off his own direction when Andrew takes to levitating the camera with his mind, and the constant flitting to cameras used by others - including security cameras and CCTV from various buildings - is oddly out of place. Rather than having the presumably intended effect of a carefully compiled ‘documentary’, Chronicle feels like the found footage film that shouldn’t be - and might well have fared much better in a regular format.

✰✰✰

See also: Cloverfield (2008), Heroes (2006-10)

Dir: Josh Trank
Cast: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan
20th Century Fox, 84 mins, 01/02/12

Synopsis: Three high school boys accidentally gain superpowers to comedic effect, but events take a turn for the worse when a third of the trio discovers his dark side...

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