Movie Review - Chronicle

Chronicle (2012)

Starring Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, and Michael B. Jordan

Directed by Josh Trank

One of these days, the "found footage" concept is bound to bite the dust, but for some reason it's a fad that is fairly consistently successful in part because it seemingly can produce movies on the cheap.  Although not a horror film like most of the "found footage" flicks that have come before it, Chronicle has all the staples I've come to find in the genre -- a focus on youth, unknown actors to project a sense of "realism," and an hour of nothingness followed by a third act that works incredibly well, but can't quite make up for the failings that came before it.

When three high school friends find what appears to be a sinkhole in a junkyard and go into it to explore, they come out of the hole with superhuman powers.  Cat-like reflexes, the ability to move things with their minds, and flying are just a few of their newfound attributes.  Unfortunately, for about an hour, the film does nothing except throw some horrible dialog at us while this trio marvels at their cool new talents. Sure, we're tossed some character scenes most involving the videographer Andrew (Dane DeHaan) and his abusive out-of-work father that are supposed to build up and give credence to the film's final act, but these attempts at providing depth are really just laughable and much too obvious in their foreshadowing of the film's conclusion.

Ultimately, though, the film's final twenty minutes are a pretty exciting (although insanely ludicrous) thrill ride.  It's a shame that director Josh Trank and screenwriter Max Landis don't provide, respectively, enough visual stimuli or meaningful plot to make the rest of the film live up to the finale.  It doesn't help matters that this is probably one of the worst "found footage" films in terms of camera shots -- the superpowers of our heroes allow the camera to float in midair beside them so we're not always seeing a first-person look of things like most other films in this genre.  This should've been unique, but instead proves off-putting in many scenes.  And don't even get me started on where the heck the cameras are for the final scenes...how they were getting filmed is beyond me.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-