‘Chronicle’ is a smart sci-fi film, only held back by its format

When you’re young and dreaming of becoming a superhero, you probably tilt back and forth between heroism and villainy. It would probably be great to save the day, but total destruction has its high points as well.

Chronicle, a smart sci-fi thriller from director Josh Trank, looks at three high school students and their uneasy time adapting to new superhero powers. Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan), his cousin Matt Garretty (Alex Russell) and their best friend Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan) represent all the social stereotypes of teenage life. Andrew is a loner virgin. Matt is the good-looking pothead. Steve is the big man on campus and set to win the election for class president. John Hughes would be proud.

The three form an unlikely friendship that is highlighted by weekend beerfests and conversations about girls, girls, girls. Like any other movie depicting high school life, it’s hard to believe these scenes are accurate, but Chronicle has the good sense of keeping this early exposition as fleeting as possible.

It’s only after the three find a cavern in the middle of the woods that things begin to change. Some extraterrestrial power source underneath the earth causes the trio to experience unbelievable strength, the power to fly and the ability to move objects with the mind.

These being a bunch of immature high school students, Andrew, Matt and Steve do what boys do best: They begin a path of destruction. First they test out small experiments, like floating baseballs in the sky and dangling teddy bears above unsuspecting toddlers. Gradually they move into stronger, darker realms, and it becomes increasingly more difficult to hold back the powers.

Andrew, in particular, sees the additional strength as a chance to make retribution for his less-than-ideal home life. His beloved mother is dying, and the family can’t afford her medication. His father abuses him and is perpetually drunk. He can’t keep a girl’s interest for too long, and everyone thinks he’s weird. While Matt and Steve keep the powers in prank mode, Andrew slowly morphs into a villain with diabolical plans in his head.

As a popcorn thriller, Chronicle is highly enjoyable. Although there are scenes that are cringeworthy in their ridiculousness (I’m not sure if any Hollywood director has accurately portrayed a high school setting), the movie holds up and keeps us interested until the end.

The acting is impressive, although the actors are clearly too old for college roles, let alone high school characters. DeHaan is especially talented at bringing this complex, violent character to life. In some ways, Chronicle feels like the origin story so many were hoping for in the earlier Stars Wars films. Andrew would make a great precursor to Darth Vader.

But all is not perfect. The most egregious error in the filmmaking is the unforgivable decision to make Chronicle a found-footage movie. We never get clear, steady shots of the new superheroes using their new powers. Instead, we are forced to watch all of the action through the lens of Andrew’s camera. In the beginning of the movie, he tells us that he’s taken up video as a hobby. Then, throughout the rest of the film, much of the dialogue is focused on Andrew’s insistence on taping the destruction. For an 83-minute film, too much time is wasted on this over-used filmmaking style. And the reason that Andrew can’t explain the camera’s presence is because there is no logical reason why a bunch of superheroes would care about documenting their actions.

Worse yet, when the movie meets new characters, they seem to have an interest in video as well. One girl video-blogs about her life in high school. She, too, has a camera at the ready.

With all this sex, lies and videotape, I was half-expecting the three guys to bump into the Blair Witch or maybe that monster from Cloverfield. And then all of the characters could tape all the other characters, and we would be left wondering why everyone doesn’t just drop the cameras and run for their life.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Chronicle

• 2012

• Directed by Josh Trank

• Written by Max Landis; based on a story by Landis and Trank

• Starring Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan

• Running time: 83 minutes

• Rated PG-13 for intense action and violence, thematic material, some language, sexual content and teen drinking

• Rating: