Chronicle

Synopsis: Three teens venture into a hole only to return with super human powers.

Chronicle was decent, however, it wasn't anything special. The flick pretty much irritated me. Yes, it has decent effects... So what? The acting was not very solid except for Dane Dehaan who plays Andrew and his father played by Michael Kelly, their performances were actually well done. So what irritated me? Was it the story? No. Was it the acting? Not quite. It was the filming style. For a superhero movie, the "handy-cam" technique didn't work. They tried to sell the believability of the film by simply making it a "lost Footage" or "Blair Witch" or a goddamn "Cloverfield". You know the handheld-based-on-true-events kind of filmming. That style of filmmaking  gets old very quick. I'm OK with the "shaky" camera effect, but only when it adds to the grittyness of the film. I.E. Battle: Los Angeles etc. The shaky camera only works in some movies, such as Cloverfield. Not this one. It would have been a lot better with the traditional movie "feel" to it.

Chronicle didn't "wow" me at all. It was very mediocure at best, nothing special. There's no explaination to how they got the powers. After they gain their new found powers, well, everything became rather predicable. I didn't feel sorry for any of the characters. Come to think of it, another aspect of the film that irritated me was the pacing of the film. It was very slow.

With that said, I can't go without acknowledging the fact that the special effects were actually pretty believable at times. The story was somewhat solid, yet nothing new. I'll give it that, but regardless of the special effects and the subpar storyline, the idea of these teens video taping thier adventures is somewhat, unbelievable. As you watch the film, you start to ask, why would it be nessisary for them to carry a camera around? Why take a camera to a party? Somethings just didn't sit well with me when it came to how and why they were using a camera. This is why I believe this film would have been amazing if they had filmed it in a traditional manner. But sadly they didn't. Again, the store was great. The effects, also amazing. But the way it was filmed, pretty much takes away from the film rather than giving it more puch. 1.5 stars out of 5.

-- Connor Murphy