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Chronicle (2012)

Boys will be boys

Rating: 8/10

Running Time: 84 minutes

US Certificate: PG-13 UK Certificate: 12A

If you got superpowers what would you do? Go around saving damsels in distress or would you use it to muck around and see through girls’ clothes, set fire to stuff and annoy people? Let’s face it, not everyone would become a superhero. Especially not a teenager. Chronicle is the story of three high school friends (DeHaan, Russell, Jordan) who accidentally gain superpowers when checking out some kind of meteor. At first, the teenagers just mess around and use their powers for trivial stuff but soon things begin to get serious as events spiral out of control and their motives become darker.

Chronicle is a compact, short and sweet tale that’s part comedy drama and part dark, serious comic book stuff. This mixture is good fun throughout and the fast pace means it never ambles along and stays engaging throughout. The three youngsters give credible performances and are easy to laugh with but the main niggle with Josh Trank’s movie is that there is a real lack of character development which gives it a little bit of a ‘who cares’ element? Most of it is filmed first-person Cloverfield-style as we get all the tried-and-tested close-ups, camera wobbles and out of focus shots we’re all used to now but it’s done in a relatively unannoying, unobtrusive way.

Overall, this is an excellent effort refreshingly brought to us by a group of unknowns that’s certainly not going to be around for years but is nonetheless an easy, intriguing watch. If you go into the cinema with fairly low expectations, you’ll have a blast.

It's Got: Good acting by the young cast, intriguing story, quite a bit of humour

It Needs: A bit more character dvelopment, low expectations going into the cinema

Summary

This throwaway hit is a refreshingly different and intriguing take on the superhero concept. A great effort by a bunch of big screen newcomers.