Customer Reviews

Chronicle

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

(The review I wrote for my college newspaper)

Chronicle is the story of three high school seniors named Andrew Dettmer (Dane DeHaan), Matt Garetty (Alex Russell), and Steve Montgomery (Micheal B. Jordan). Steve is a popular guy, running for student body president. Matt, Andrew's cousin, has never had any shortcomings with popularity or women. Andrew is the opposite. He comes from a poor family, with a dying mother and an alcoholic, abusive father. He never talks to anyone, is regularly bullied, and his only outlet in life is his camera, which he carries with him everywhere. What do these three have in common? Telekinetic abilities, and one flippin' good movie.
After stumbling out of the hole where they found a strange crystal formation, they discover they have the ability to change the world around them with their thoughts. They start small with their new powers, building with toy blocks and stopping baseballs in mid-flight, but if they over-do it, their noses start to bleed like a faucet. 'I think it's like a muscle,' Matt said in one scene, 'The more you use it, the stronger it gets.' But after some pranks at the local supermarket, one unfortunate tailgater shows them just how dangerous these abilities are, and Andrew realizes how powerful he can be. As he describes in one scene, he has become an 'Apex Predator,' the highest link on the food chain.
Chronicle is a beautiful example of taking aspects of previous films and doing them properly. It has Cloverfield's style of filming, but without the camera shake (he used a tripod, how about that?). The movie is based around the core concept of Andrew filming the events that are happening, and later in the movie, this takes the shape of police dash-cams and other people filming from their windows. External shots of the main characters are cleverly disguised as Andrew 'floating' his camera. The act of telekinesis in the movie is flawlessly done too, there's no flashes or lines to link the action to the character, but the character's movement links to the action. There's no lights or flashes when they use their powers, like in Push. They use hand gestures or head-tilting to show that what they're doing.
One of the finest details is the choice of actors, all relatively unknown. (Except Micheal B. Jordan, who was in Friday Night Lights, voiced Jace Stratton in the video games Gears of War 3, and also starred in January's Red Tails.) While this is normally a huge gamble, this is a great example of it paying off. The fact that they're mostly unrecognized adds authenticity to the story.
In short, Chronicle is a valuable addition to any movie fans' arsenal!

Chronicle(released Feb/12)stars Dane DeHaan as Andrew Detmer,Michael B. Jordan as Steve Montgomery,Alex Russell as Matt Garetty,Michael Kelly as Richard Detmer,Ashley Hinshaw as Casey Letter and others.This is yet another Blair Witch Project,this time done through the eyes of three Seattle high school students."Done" is the operative word here,as in done this genre right into the ground and done terribly poorly.
The film finds Andrew as the school loner.He has a dying mother and an abusive,alcoholic father.Andrew decides to start taking a camera along wherever he goes(quite convenient),and during a party his cousin Matt and his friend Steve take a walk in the nearby woods,and discover a strange hole.Steve gets Andrew to come and film it.In the hole they all go and they come upon a strange crystalline structure at the end of the tunnel.Whatever it is emanates different lights and strange sounds,and when they leave the tunnel their lives slowly start to change.They start to discover they have the powers of psycho-kinesis.Andrew develops it faster and stronger than the others.Whenever something untoward happens to one the others gets nose bleeds.There is a definite symbiosis going on here.
At first they start out doing harmless lifting of various objects big and small.As their powers grow they have the ability to literally fly into the air and travel great distances.Andrew however is slowly but surely withdrawing from the others,his home life situation not helping any.After a confrontation with his father,he flies into the clouds and Steve comes to talk to him.It all ends as Andrew pushes Steve away so hard,he falls to earth and dies.
Andrews mother grows weaker everyday and when Andrew has no money to pay for his mothers pills he starts robbing his school mates,then a mini-mart.However during the latter a propane tank explodes sending Andrew to the hospital.As his father sits by his bed he reveals Andrew's mother passed away that night.But because he was out looking for him he blames Andrew for him not being able to be there for his wife.As he stands over Andrew demanding an apology,Andrew causes a huge explosion to rip the wall out of the hospital room.This draws the attention of the police and the media.Matt is getting a nose bleed and knows something is wrong.He sees the kerfuffle on TV and speeds to the scene.He is just in time to save Andrews father who is thrown to the ground by a hovering and very angry Andrew.Matt and Andrew have a huge showdown over Seattle and it all comes to a disastrous end when Matt is forced to kill Andrew.
The film ends as we find Matt in Tibet.Andrew had said earlier on in the film that they should travel there and they all agreed,except they never made it.This is Matt's way of fulfilling the promise.
If I have to sit through another of these cheaply made,Blair Witch like films,I don't know....burning the disc is too good.The only positives I can say is that it is a kind of a neat idea,on paper,and the special effects were well done.Other than that this wanna-be life like picture is a total washout.As life-like as these films try to be,they really are far off the mark.For instance Andrews father belts him across the face and knocks him off his chair.He comes back up with a grimace but nothing else.Reality?....he should have been crying.But hey,this is Hollywood and REAL reality is a no-no.Just pretend reality.And the moral of the story,that man is not meant to have these powers?Yeah,yeah....they did it better in Star Trek,and long before that.
Technically speaking the film is in its w/s a/r of 1:85:1 and extras include pre-viz stuff & a camera test.
All in all another Blair Witch rip off,and done very poorly and uninterestingly at that.The moral is as old as the hills and just as lame.Highly NOT recommended.

The chronicle movie Is not what I was expected.To me it's not a well made stories.
I didn't like the movie. I don't know If I would recommended to anyone.

Full of extra scenes and amped up to beautiful HD blu ray, it's a great buy and has a wicked reflective sleeve along with it. I'd recommend this to anyone who loved the movie and wants to see more of it, I completely support it. Only problem I had with this is that there was a crack in the case when it arrived, but I'm sure that's due to crappy delivery service. If you have the money dish it out for a better deliverer.

"Chronicle" is a great example of how a much maligned film-making technique can surprise you with its incredible quality when you least expect it. I usually hate the shaky, hand-held P.O.V. style lots of movies are made in nowadays but I have to say for "Chronicle" this style not only worked but actually amplified the emotional and visceral impact of what was happening in the story.

Basically its about three high school students, two guys who are rather popular, and one guy who is an outcast and picked on by others, who discover a weird glowing object in a hole in the earth. When they touch it they later discover they have developed telekinetic abilities. The three boys form a bond as their powers grow but as each one uses it for their own lives the consequences of this leads all of them down a dark path of destruction and death.

I was happy to find "Chronicle" to be a dark, edgy and surprisingly violent film that didn't shy away from criticizing how human monsters are made from the social neglect, the psychological violence of social pecking orders, abusive family situations, and the abuses perpetrated by peers and people in general on those who seem weak and incapable of defending themselves. One of the many gratifying and terrifying moments in this movie is watching how the shy abused character of Andrew becomes finally capable of defending himself against the people who have tormented him his entire life and the blossoming of his ego as it grows to monstrous proportions after having been damaged and repressed for so long. It is as inevitable as it is tragically realistic of a social system that creates the Adolf Hitlers, Andrew Brevics and Vince Li's of the world while taking no responsibility for it. There is one disheartening scene in particular where Andrew tries to buy medicine for his mother who is at home at the moment literally dying only to be casually rebuffed by the callous pharmacist because he does not have enough money to pay for the medication he needs to keep his mom alive. Even after he tells the pharmacist his mother is dying the pharmacist still refuses to give him the medicine. I tell you, if Nazi's exist today they run the medical system of North America and this scene is excellent in exposing what probably happens on a day to day basis as an acceptable occurrence by current political and social standards.

The picture in "Chronicle" is crisp and well detailed and way above the quality of most P.O.V. movies. In this regard I found it not only easy but attractive to watch and yet it still manages to retain its shaky hand-held-in-the-moment style which allowed the incredible top-notch special effects to make it feel even more real as i watched it. The story is incredibly well-written, the characters perfectly portrayed by the actors, and the movie moves at a roller-coaster paced while trying to cram almost every scene and shot with a special effect.

It's Project X meets X-Men! I was surprised I liked this as much as I did and highly recommend this film to anyone who is into sci-fi awesomeness! There were many things that happened in this movie that left my jaw hanging open in shock and not many films can do that. Very good!

Very interesting and fresh premise to the movie.
Some cool special effects.
Good storyline, with an element of realism - as the cool protagonist does not always win the day (or survive).
Gets a bit unrealistic toward the end.
Nice, light, sci-fi for a Friday night.