Chronicle

Justin: I hear the title "Chronicle" and I think it must be about a newspaper, or maybe a magical Lion named Aslan. A better title would have been "Telepathy High School." Sorry, is that a spoiler? The stage is set with our three main characters. The first one is basically me in high school: a complete outcast who is generally hated. Granted, he's a skinny hipster kid, not a rotund neckbeard with asthma, but the essentials are the same. Also, my mom wasn't sick and my dad wasn't an alcoholic moron, so fortunately I haven't had to turn to the dark side. However, the teenage angst element was something that, at first, I identified with. The second guy is his cousin, all around nice guy and not much else. The third guy is Barrack Obama Jr., star athlete, Mr. Popular, class president, yada yada. These unlikely conspirators are thrown in the mix together after discovering some kind of artifact underground that gives them Heroes abilities. They are still very mortal, and all have the same powers. They gradually get better and better at using them, graduating from legos to buses over a few short weeks. From the perspective of a kid who always wished he had super powers, this was fun. While the whole "found footage" thing is becoming a bit of a cliche, this movie does it with enough style and clever trickery that it didn't seem out of place. Our angsty anti-hero justifies his decision to film everything as a way to keep his abusive father out of his room. The fun part of the movie plays like a youtube video, full of hoots and hollers but devoid of plot. The only time it got stupid was when the cousin and his love interest, a high school reporter who also films everything, have their awkward teenage flirtations while aiming cameras at each other. So yeah, the kid eventually loses it and turns evil. He starts wreaking havoc on Seattle and being generally lame, smashing things and screaming like a little cry baby. Overall this is my biggest criticism with this film. While the special effects and action are cool, and using security footage and camera angles gives it a more realistic feel, what I hate about it is that it is assumed this was how it had to be. At a point in the film, he asks his friends why they can't simply escape from their lives and go seek enlightenment in the Himalayas. This is a damn good question, really. This, for me, was a brief glimmer of hope for this movie. Shouldn't it be possible that those faced with adversity and social anxiety can somehow conquer their demons and discover the greatness within themselves? Can't we claim that these people, super powers or not, don't have to become the victims of abuse and succumb to villany? His two compatriots laugh at the idea. Their big idea? Talent show. So anyway, fans of the genre will probably think this is a pretty fun movie. It's a deconstruction of the superhero mythos, with all the camp and colored costumes removed. The underlying message, that those who have been corrupted by abuse are impossible to save, is not one that I endorse.

Chels: I have some SERIOUS issues with Chronicle. When I first saw previews in the theaters I was actually pretty pumped on it coming out, dare I say that I was even looking forward to it. Oh naivety. Unfortunately for Chronicle, it falls amongst many other ill fated movies that reveal the entire plot in the previews. I can't express to you how much I loathe this. I understand that the whole point of previews are to draw me in and make me want to see the movie. But it fills me with disdain that once the movie titans have pocketed my hard earned cash (or in my and Justin's case my free movie passes that my Mom gives us - shout out to my Mom!) that they get all lazy and just show me the preview again. Only this time instead of being two minutes, it's two hours. Skip it if you can. Lots of teenage boys menstruating, which was just as weird as it sounds. There's one particular kid that God or Xenu or The Lords of Kobol must REALLY hate, and he ends up getting totally owned. This was actually one of the most gratifying sequences in the movie for me. Yes. Chelsea is a monster, blah blah blah, tel me something I don't know.