Chronicle - 27th January 2015

A departure from the norm here at Tuesday Night is Film Night, a switch of genres if you please. There's going to be a touch of thrilling, sci-fi drama, as we watch;

Chronicle

It has been a while since we have seen anything sci-fi based, so it was with some trepidation that we loaded Chronicle into the DVD player, but the trailer was intriguing and it looked promising.

The story starts with Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan) who acquires a camera and starts to record his life. Andrew is an awkward, shy individual whose mother is dying of cancer and he doesn't get on with his drunk and pernicious father. Andrew rides to school with his cousin Matt Garetty (Alex Russell), who tries to bring Andrew out of his shell. At one point they attend a party, camera still filming everything, where they meet up with Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan), who has discovered a rather strange hole in the ground. This is where the sci-fi bit kicks in. Inside the hole is what appears to be an alien rock or at least an extraterrestrial object, that glows and on closer inspection it appears to attract objects towards it. All very strange. The upshot of this encounter is that the three boys discover that some of the power has transferred to them and they now have certain powers, very much akin to telekinesis, where they can make objects move. That doesn't sound like the basis of a good film, but please stick with it.

So far, so good, but why is the film called Chronicle we hear you ask? Well, the whole film is retold via medium of personal camcorders or CCTV, hence it is chronicling the story for us. So there are lots of PoV shots and for those moments when you need a wider shot well the camera is owned by someone who now has the power to make things move, so he controls the camera mentally. You'll see what we mean if you watch the film.

Back to the story. At first the emergence of these powers were just a bit of fun, just messing with toys and cameras, then they used their powers to mess with others, just for a laugh, moving cars etc. Then they discovered as they grew stronger and better with their controls they could actually fly. There's a really cool section in the film where we seem them enjoying the freedom and fun their unique talents have brought them.

However this is where the film starts to turn dark. Andrew inadvertently uses his power to take swipe at a car driver who is following them, this swipe sends the car careering off the road and the driver ends up in hospital as a result. This juxtaposition between the lightheartedness and the darker side of having super powers is very much in evidence as Andrew, who is becoming mentally the stronger one between the three of them, starts to spiral out of control.

The story builds and builds, getting darker and darker and we end with a tumultuous finale, where the special effects are ramped up to the maximum as Andrew does battle with his internal demons and those who are trying to stop him.

All in all it was a really good film, most enjoyable even for a sci-fi. It is fairly short, only weighing in at 80 minutes, but it builds up the layers of storyline, using dialogue to good effect at the beginning and not relying on too much CGI intervention, as opposed to the end, which is a cavalcade of computer generated wizardry. We did particularly like the camera work, utilising the handheld cameras to capture the action, but doing so in a smooth way, i.e not too much jumping around. It was a very clever and somewhat unique way of retelling or chronicling if you like, the story.

Although it was appreciated from the sofas, the scores were just a tad better than mediocre, the female members of the panel voting down due to the lack of romance! You can't please everybody.

Chronicle is well worth a watch.

TNiFN Rating 72%

IMDB Link