Chronicle

I must beg to differ. I was never a sociopath. I eschewed contact with any human as much as I could've possibly do it. That made me more of an antiopath than sociopath.

Am I?

So. I'll admit to being incredibly (and pleasantly) surprised that the early reviews for Chronicle seem to be quite positive. It has a 89% on Rotten Tomatoes (47 reviews) and a 71 on metacritic (counting 15 reviews).

I mean I was going to see it anyway, but at least now I don't feel like I have to go to the theater wanting to see something fun but expecting something mediocre. I hate that feeling.

Odd note, the movie was apparently written by John Landis' son, Max Landis.

Okay, got back from this a while ago (I mostly tend to hit midnight showings when I can).

It was actually pretty good. The basic plotline is fairly simple told effectively.

And yeah, it's shaky-cam. Not my most favorite cinematic convention, but it wasn't horrific either.

And while a lot of the CGI in the flying scenes was fairly obvious, it wasn't "break you out of the moment" bad or anything. And some of the flying scenes were breathtaking.

If I didn't hate the 3D format so much, and if it didn't break the movie's "found footage" convention, I'd have said it screamed for a 3D treatment.

About the only fault I found was near the end. One of the protagonists' portrayals dropped quite badly into cheesy narm territory. Yeah, I get it. Teenager. Whatever. But it was still just...cliche.

*SPOILER*
Sorry if you're viewing this with the villain background, if using Hero, just highlight below the ***




















































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Essentially one of the trio who's a victim of domestic abuse has cracked, decided he's an "apex predator", so he uses it as an excuse to hover menacingly in the air growling and posing in a hostile manner in front of a bunch of people in the Seattle Space Needle.

You know the pose, legs in a somewhat crouched position, arms down at his sides, hands turned in and clawed up with a menacing grimace on his face. It was about the only thing that really took me completely out of the film.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

I was going to go see this movie this weekend, but I'm getting snowed in pretty hard right now, so it likely will get pushed back a week or so.

Just came back from it. It's a superhero origin film in the line of Cloverfield meets Unbreakable/Akira. I loved it!

The weather calmed down so I went out to see it yesterday. Ok movie. Nothing spectacular, but not bad. Not at all a happy film though.

I liked the movie. I also liked that we finally got the Sylar vs Peter Petrelli fight we've been waiting for.

I just got back from it myself. Not bad. It's a good, solid, story with believeable charcters. It's a good 'origin' story, however, I hope they don't make a sequel as a cash-grab. I really liked it, but I think the story's told with the one. More movies should take a clue from that though so it wouldn't surprise me if they did make another.

All in all, it's one I'll add to my collection when it comes out on DVD.

Just watched it. I think this is one movie that was definitely hurt by its commercials. Anyone who watched a single commercial or trailer would lose any sense of cinematic reveal, and may end up like a lot of movie-goers that think a film sucks if it didn't surprise them. Do not expect the film to be like the trailer; it is much better than the trailer indicates.

I thought the three main characters were all very well cast and very believable. There were a couple scenes that did actually manage to surprise me, and I'm so very glad that these scenes weren't the ones chosen for commercials (which mostly focused on the very beginning and very ending scenes). A couple characters stood out to me, including Michael B. Jordan as a popular black socialite that didn't fall into cliches of teen popularity, and Michael Kelly as the abusive father. Overall, I thought the characters acted believably and with real emotion, which made even the fairly predictable plot interesting and riveting to me. Props go to the first time writer-director Max Landis and write Josh Trank, who made great use of emotion to exploit the eccentricities of teen angst and interaction without appearing cliched. I look forward to seeing more from them.

As far as the "found-footage" mechanic goes, I thought it was very well done. This is NOT Paranormal Activities: Super Heroes. Instead, the camera work both aids the story and works very well to capture the feel, but never had me saying "this would work better with traditional cameras." The CGI was low-tech, but extremely well utilized and photo-realistic. I liked the way they used it far more than any summer block-buster I can recall. The flying scenes in particular were great. The minimalistic nature of the superpowers combine well with the camerawork to give a sense of "this is real," aided by the characters' emotions. I also liked the fact the film didn't try to overextend to be a traditional two hour movie; the shorter run-time fit well and should be used more often.

I had a few gripes, but they were mostly minor. For instance, one of the film's three main characters was very loosely defined compared to the other two (he liked philosophy and was "too cool for school"), but he still managed to appear real despite his limited background and characterization. Another character, the aforementioned character's love-interest, was used very little and seemed to have little point in the frame-work of the movie. Finally, the ending was a little anti-climatic and could have been done better with a little more foreshadowing to make it appear relevant and connected (feel free to walk out after the last fight scene).

Overall, the film's innovative use of low-budget CGI and camerawork aid the presentation and help the rather predictable story, which is aided by great performances by the actors and some of the best, non-cliched writing I've seen for teen characters. I'd recommend it because of its writing and superb use of technical features, though not necessarily for its fairly predictable plotline. I will warn you: it is dark. It doesn't sugarcoat issues like bullying, domestic violence, and animal cruelty (a spider, not a big part of the story but memorable). However, it is a well-rounded movie, with genuinely funny moments combined with genuinely depressing ones. I'd give it 9 out of 10 stars.

I have to admit it turned out to be a fairly good flick. Plot was solid. Actors put off some good energy. The kid going dark side was way better then anakins in the prequels.

Id say give it a watch and appreciate how diverse telekinesis really is.

just watched it. I'd have preferred if the out comes of the characters arcs would have been reversed... as it is a little less cliche. I don't know if it was trying to give or trying to avoid messages, but the set up of the film seems that regardless of how it turned out would have given a message of some sort... i think the best possible route would have been if Steve or Matt would ave become the villain as you could avoid the whole Popular = good message, but whatever.

I hope there is a sequel where 3 come back ^.^

Incidentally, Chroncile's screenwriter, Max Landis, has a hilarious "educational parody" video about the 1992 Death of Superman comic event, starring Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Simon Pegg and many more. Its NSFW language of the "WTF" variety rules out linking here, but anyone Google it up with that information.