Throughout the years, audiences have been treated to origin stories such as those based on superheroes. With the recent success of the Batman, X-Men, Spider-Man films; and also worth mentioning "Thor" "X-Men:First Class", and "Captain America", it's not hard to see why they click with audiences. With "Chronicle", the superhero origin story is given a fresh new spin.
Directed by Joe Trank, "Chronicle" tells the story of three friends who gain superpowers from a mysterious tunnel discovered in a remote part of a suburban town. Strangely, these teens don't seem frightened or confused about their new found power. Think about how frightened and confused Bruce Banner was when he first transformed into the Hulk. But whereas Hulk was bombarded with gamma rays, "Chronicle" takes a swipe at a fairly plausible Dues Ex Machina plot device that has yet to be explained in possible future installments.
It's true that some may find fault with it's vignette-style story telling in the vein of "Cloverfield". But unlike "Cloverfield" which was a good film in it's own right but had a little too much "shaky-cam" effect, the technique is surprisingly easy to follow. That along with the well-written script and performances, made "Chronicle" all the more enjoyable and engrossing. Maybe in the future, film-makers should take notice from this film in order to make a superb product. Not only that, they even managed to achieve believable special effects on a low budget along with the script. That's really impressive that they achieved to reach fans of superhero comics and films as well as the general audience; very unique.
But I really wished it was longer. With such an intriguing premise even more better than Hayden Christensen's stinker of a superhero origin story "Jumper". "Jumper" was such a disappointment. It wasn't even fully developed on it's potential and sadly was utterly wasted. Thankfully, "Chronicle" delivers on everything that film didn't and more. The climax(which I will not spoil) is one of sheer awesomeness. Emotionally charged with a nice dash of good vs evil, done in an unconventional way. The length of the film bummed me out, but from the looks of things, I can see this film grow into something really special.
