by Madelyn Carter| co-editor-in-chief
Let me just start by saying that I didn’t even know what The Chronicle was about until I asked a friend next to me five seconds before it came on the screen. Being someone who isn’t wild about movies centered around stuff being blow up and cities being destroyed, the previews never caught my eye. But I decided, the heck with it, I’ll give it a shot.
The Chronicle seems to be your classic ‘boy’ movie. I can almost guarantee that if you ask any guy that saw it, they’ll say they loved it. Kind of like Transformers or Cowboys Versus Aliens; really anything where there’s explosions or things that fly into each other, they love. But from the view of the opposite gender, Chronicle crosses the “boys only”, stereotypical line.
A bullied, abused, and depressed teen Andrew (Dance DeHaan) begins filming everything; he takes his camera to school, in the car, and films at home. At a rave, him, his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and friend Steve (Michael B. Jordan) climb down into a mysterious hole in the ground and stumble upon an object that gives them telekinesis-the supposed ability to move objects at a distance by mental power.
The three keep their new-found power under wraps, but use it at any chance alone they can get. They go from using it to throw rocks, to winning a magic show, to flying as high as airplanes. The special effects for this is really astounding and kind of put you in that “ahhhh” face while watching it.
But things start to get ugly when Andrew accidentally makes someone’s car fall into a lake, and is not concerned that the man almost dies because of him. Here was kind of a red flag that the movie wasn’t going to be about all the cool stuff the guys could do with telekinesis, but that something bad was going to go down (sigh). With the stress of his mother dying of cancer and an aggressive, dead-beat dad, Andrew’s innocence fades away. He begins to get this supremacist feeling that he is on top of the world and that no one can stop him.
‘Chronicle’ is mostly seen through the eyes of Andrew’s camera, which makes it different from other sci-fi-ish action movies. There is an actual plot line too, which allows those who enjoy more than watching buses flying into people and well-known city structures collapse to be satisfied. Chronicle also has that underlying message of “With great power comes great responsibility”, as we seen the effects of great capacity in the wrong hands.
Chronicle is not one to fall into the “boys-only” category. For those who can see it with an open mind and appreciate good cinematography, this movie is for you.
