Finally I got to watch my most anticipated movie of the month besides Haywire... I expected Chronicle to be as exciting as Cloverfield as both used found footage style... Lately, found footage has been quite a hit thanks to the success of Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity movie series...
THE STORY
Three teenagers, Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Matt (Alex Russell) and Steve (Micheal B. Jordan), went into a mysterious underground hole and encountered a strange crystal like object that grant them great power of telekinesis...
THE PLUS POINTS
Found Footage
After Cloverfield, I've been a fan of found footage style though my interest was only towards the genre of action and not horror... Maybe this interest was derived from my love of first-person-shooter (FPS) video games like Half-Life and Counter Strike... Both found footage movies and FPS games can make a person vomit if he/she is prone to motion sickness...
Anyway, for me, the found footage style in Chronicle somehow make the movie more realistic... It's as if the movie is a real life documentary about a few teenagers having superpowers and how they went about getting stronger and doing damage to themselves and people around... Besides that, it also made me feel that I was actually in the movie because I see everything that was happening in it from my own point of view making the movie more exciting...
"Bromance"
I found the bromance between the three main characters very amusing and funny... They had fun, the experimented stuff, they laughed silly and they played around... The fun stuff that they do together were so amusing and it contributed so many laughs...
One of my favorite scenes was when Andrew saved Steve from falling after being hit by a plane... Steve was hysterical and it's really funny to see... The scene when they're in the mall was also hilarious...
Andrew's Fall into Darkness
This is no superhero movie... In my opinion, it's more of a movie about the making of a psychotic serial killer... It's kinda interesting and disturbing to see how Andrew slowly falling into the dark side... From wrecking a car while talking about being the apex predator, tearing up the limbs of a spider, pulling out the teeth of the people who bullied him... Very creepy...
However, when I think about it, if I were in Andrew's shoes, I would react the same... The world threw me away, why would I show them pity?
The Ending
The ending was climatic... Andrew was pushed to the limit and there was nothing that can be done to make him turn around... It forced Matt step into the chaos and stop him from terrorizing the city resulting in the last battle between two psychics...
THE MINUS POINTS
Slow Build Up
My wife commented that the story build up was too slow... As similar as Cloverfield, this movie took it's time to introduce about the conflict and relation of each character and it's kinda boring to see... The fun only started after the boys got into the hole and gained their powers...
Low Budget Effects
This production cost of this movie is quite low and therefore, the effects sometimes appeared to be unrealistic... For example, the time when Andrew did magic at the talent show... The flying cards, the apples - they looked a bit fake...
ALL IN ALL
This movie turned out to be just like what I expected and that's why I love it so much... The highlight of the movie is certainly the fun training the boys had and also Andrew's transformation from a wimpy to psycho... It has all the laughs and all the coolness and it's also a bit disturbing sometimes... Totally a must watch for me...
4 out of 5 stars...
1 comments
wow. 4 stars eh? must be good then.
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