Warning: This post contains content some people may consider a “spoiler”.
This weekend I did something I don’t normally do, I went to the cinema to see a movie. Something that is so uncommon, the last movie I saw at one was Horrible Bosses, which I thought was really funny, but pretty shallow beyond that. Yesterday I saw Chronicle, a Sci-Fi/Thriller about three high school students who develop super powers through mysterious circumstances.
The movie takes place through cameras that are already present in the world. In other words, the actors are aware they are being filmed. The main character, Andrew, is chronicling his life (no lie, I just figured out how they got the title of the movie), carrying his camera with him everywhere he goes. This works well because his telekinesis allows him to make the camera float around when all three boys are onscreen. At other times cell phone cameras, security cameras and police helicopter cameras are also used. It’s a technique that isn’t used very often is movies, as a matter of fact I never seen another movie that did it, but I’m sure there have been some.
I only have two problems with the movie. The first is that they don’t really explain where the powers came from. It shows the boys going through a cave underground and finding this glowing boulder, then later going back and being unable to access it again. However they never said what the boulder was, where it came from or how they got their powers from it.
My second issue was with the ending. They don’t say what happens with Andrew’s cousin, Matt. They kinda wrap up the movie with him at the end but don’t show any aftermath from the movie’s climax or what he does moving forward with his powers. I’d like to know if he returned to face the consequences of the climax or went into seclusion.
It takes a little while to get going, but once it does, it’s good. I enjoyed it enough to recommend as a solid Sci-Fi/Thriller. I’d probably go see it again for the matinee price.
