Sunday, February 26, 2012

Chronicle

A bullied teen with a dying mother and an abusive father begins documenting his life with a camcorder when he, his cousin, and a friend discover a mysterious hole in the earth and attain supernatural kinetic powers. As the three begin to hone and enjoy their new found gifts, which includes the power of flight, the disaffected loner begins to give in to the darker side of his nature. "Chronicle" is an entertaining and unique take on the superhero genre, and is just the right film to give the tired genre a kick. I also found myself surprised to be enjoying so thoroughly what is essentially a high school movie and its three lead actors, Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, and Michael B. Jordan are all very engaging. My only complaint here is the distracting "Blair Witch"/"Cloverfield" found footage gimmick which is completely unnecessary and could have been easily worked around. In the film, one character asks the other if he thinks filming everything will create a barrier. I can answer that in the affirmative.