Chronicle- Of A Death Foretold

Chronicle hit the theaters without much fanfare or promotion. I went in not expecting much and what I got was one of the best superhero origin stories I've ever seen. It was far from perfect. The acting simply wasn't very good and the found footage style sometimes got in the way (although it was the best part of the film when it worked). The movie was very predictable, but in a good way. There are too many movies that let unnecessary plot twists get in the way of telling a good story.  (Head over to the Cypher post for one example.) Chronicle gives you exactly what the trailer advertised: a found footage film of some kids given psychic powers starting with a series of pranks while one of the kids slowly becomes Carie.

Since I first saw American Beauty, I have thought it might be interesting to try constantly filming my life. The opening of Chronicle explains why I never followed through with the plan as Andrew is accused of being a creep, beaten up and generally harassed multiple times in his first day with the camera. (I also thought that I would find that my life is truly boring on film.) It's through this opening and Andrew's later confession that he wanted to be a barrier between himself and the world that the found footage style becomes less of a gimmick and actually integral to the story.

I've seen The Specials, but you know what? I do want to hear your origin story. The fact watching how someone got super powers, learned to control them, made a choice of how to use them, and then taking on the fight against evil is intrinsically more interesting than watching one super being representing good fighting another super being representing evil. But the only thing resembling a twist in Chronicle is that it's not really a superhero origin story, it's a super-villain origin story. Andrew is the most complete, realistic and empathetic character in the film. (His character feels especially resonant as I am writing this from the Columbine Valley, home of the most infamous high school in the world.) It's not until very late in the movie, after Steve dies (Yep, the black guy dies first. I told you this movie was predictable.) that the focus starts to shift to Matt who is presented as the heroic character.

Early on, Matt is obsessed with with philosophy. In the first 15 minutes, he references Schopenhauer, Jung and Plato, but after they are granted their powers he goes oddly silent on the subject. This is very weird given that they have become Nietzsche's Superman. In fact, Chronicle could be considered a sci-fi adaptation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra (A man granted extraordinary abilities begins to view the rest of humanity as a lessor species deserving of contempt.) in the same way that The Matrix is a sci-fi adaptation of The Allegory of the Cave. Andrew's new found powers amplify his innate hatred and contempt for the rest of humanity until he loses total control, while Matt and Steve who are capable of maintaining healthy relationships before their super powers are able to stay grounded and rational.

Chronicle was very realistic in how the kids would behave if granted super powers. Think about it. If you got super powers would you go out and fight crime right away. You might say so, but what you'd really do is what the Chronicle boys did. You'd start by testing out your abilities in increasingly elaborate ways probably pulling a few pranks along the way. (These pranks were delightfully hilarious and nicely balanced what could have been a very dark film.) Then, you'd use them for greedy purposes represented by Steve and Andrew's sexcapades (Steve was reportedly very successful off-screen. Andrew's results were not as good.) and Andrew's eventual turn to crime. Finally, Andrew's freak out forces Matt to take action to defend the innocent.

One parting question of complaint: why didn't the cops shoot Andrew? During his rampage, Andrew probably kills dozens of people (no clear on-screen deaths, but his intent was murderous and it is improbable that no one died) and does millions of dollars in damages. The cops had clean shots on multiple occasions, but they never fire a shot. Maybe bullets wouldn't have hurt Andrew, but it couldn't hurt to try. (Except for Andrew, it might have hurt Andrew to try.) The cops are also surprisingly aware that the other guy flying around wreaking the city is on their side.

(Parenthetical Statements: I used way to many of these in this post. (This is getting meta. (I'm going to stop. (Eventually. (Maybe. (It seems to me that maybe pretty much always means no. (So don't tell me I might just let it go. (I'm done.))))))))