Last Sunday, me and my siblings decided to have a day out. It was nothing extravagant, but we just wanted to get away from home once in a while. And it had been a long time since we last spend time together. Our first stop was to the cinema to decide which movie we wanna watch. We all decided on Chronicle. I had my doub at first but I came out of the cinema feeling pure satisfaction.
This movie was in found footage format and was about three boys- Andrew, Steve and Matt- who stumbled upon an artifact while going spelunking inside an underground cave they found in a wood. Later they found themselves with telekinetic power. At first it seemed pretty harmless enough; everyone was enjoying their newfound abilities, making pranks on other people and playing football while floating in the sky. However, it was not all rainbow and sunshine for the boys as soon they found their powers might as well be dangerous to the people around them, and to themselves.
Chronicle started off with Andrew who had a liking in videotaping his life. He was a loner, bullied at school, and abused at home by his alcoholic father. Plus, he got no friend, and his mother was dying. Matt was his concerned cousin, and despite not being close, Matt actually cared for him. Andrew got another friend after the cave incident; a very cheerful guy called Steve. The character establishment was really good. It got people to care for them and made the audience feel related. In my opinion, the strength of this movie was not the fancy superpower effect but the main characters; Andrew, Steve and Matt.
I really love the superpower of course, this might as well be a found footage movie about superheroes. You know, I really thought it was about that at first. But Chronicle is why I love found footage movies. Chronicle was indeed a little bit of "with great powers come great responsibility thing". But not about saving the world and receiving recognition from the people they saved. This movie focused more on the boys' friendship, and the effect of the power upon their lives. It focused heavily on Andrew as he was the most disadvantage of the three.
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| Andrew in one of the movie scenes |
The telekinetic power brought a lot of good things for the Andrew, Steve and Matt. It brought them closer and had positive impact for all three of them. Andrew especially felt genuine happiness with his newfound friendship. He expressed his happiness to both Steve and Matt, and even began to come out of his secluded world. Before he wanted to shut himself out from the world, and even refused to have any friends despite Matt's insistence to give up videotaping as it was a barrier to him and the world. But Andrew's power made him confident of himself, and he began to open up to both Steve and Matt.
I love how the movie's atmosphere changed realistically and made the audience followed suit. At the start of the movie, it was really funny and the whole cinema was laughing along at the boys' douchy pranks. But then it got ugly and the cinema went quiet. Everyone was tensed, and scared. All of us were terrified for the boys, we were worried for them and even sad. Chronicle played on emotion very well. But it was also because of the strong performances from the actors. Dane DeHaan who played Andrew was exceptional. Andrew's slow development from a shy guy to happy and confident, and then into madness was engaging.
Chronicle is one of those movies that offer great emotional depth; it will bring you laughter, fear, anger, and sadness. I heartily recommend this movie to everyone.
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