Chronicle

Ratings: 7.4/10

Film Class: C+

Genre: Sci-Fi Drama

Chronicle spans around 3 guys, the lead actor (for simplicity's sake, only their first name is mentioned), Andrew, his cousin, Matt and their high school friend Steve. The gist of the film revolves around the life of the main lead Andrew, about how he just brought a new video camera (which explains why he's filming the movie with it) and  how he's being bullied by his peers in school as well as his abusive father. Alas, his mother is suffering from an incurable disease and is soon dying... the only person keeping Andrew in check. 

I don't believe I've given too much of the story away, since from the trailers, one would already know where this would lead to... The 3 guys gaining superpowers, gradually abusing it and finally going over to the "dark" side. The entire movie is shot from different angles of amateur video cameras, unlike most other "realistic" shaky cam movies which is mostly seen from 1 handheld cam. As long as there's a source of videography, eg. store's security cam, a girl who's also filming for her blog, the reporter's cameras, etc, that's how you'll be viewing the progression of the movie. An interesting take if you ask me. 

However unpromising of a story plot this movie might seem to you from the trailers, it's not. As a matter of fact, it's one of the better plot movies of such genre/movie style. *major spoilers ahead* Find out the reason behind Andrew's "evil nature" (opps, I've already disclosed it above), about what made him that way and think that way (latter not disclosed), and the movie makes you think what you would do if you had superpowers? Also, don't let the trailers fool you, not everyone is bad in this movie. And the movie doesn't development in reverse chronological order, it follows the normal timeline. I thought the crew was well chosen, and everyone was C+ Class exceptional in this movie. 

While most movies of such movie style would get a C for shaky hand held camera works, there's a + for the efforts in the special effects (though a little fake, great work on that). The flying scenes were a little too much for me to take, kinda felt too exaggerated but I shouldn't fault it since if one to have superpowers, then anything is possible isn't it? 

Some loopholes I found were how physically vulnerable they were even though they were able to prevent a fork from piercing into their hands and how the other 2 guys' powers seemed to be "controlled" by the lead actor's. Andrew doesn't get nose bleeds from the other 2 overusing the powers but the opposite is true for his mates. And yes, don't expect the part about how they managed to get superpowers to be explained. 

Overall, apart from the not so pleasant movie experience (inconsiderate couple - uncle with china lady [not intended to be a racist comment] who were talking non-stop for the entire, yes ENTIRE 84 mins the movie was run) the movie turned out better than expected. Good story progression and a fitting ending for this dark film.