Just saw Chronicle and it was phenomenal, a must see, especially for those into superheroes. It's emotionally gripping and has some fantastic action scenes towards the end. It's the definition of a must see.

Quoted from Dreamscale Ecto, this isn't the place for movie reviews.  There's an actual thread for these.  My advice is to throw it down there and give us some more details.

Oops my bad, thanks for letting me know.

Gotta disagree. This movie was horrible in every sense possible. I knew I wasn't going to like it, but damn, I didn't think it was going to be THIS bad.

- The acting was terrible and I cringed every time someone talked.
- The camerawork was good CINEMATICALLY--but wait, this isn't a cinematic movie. This is a "found footage" movie. Even with the fact that what's-his-face was controlling the camera with his mind, he made the camera movements so smooth and spot on that I figured there was some professionally trained cameraman behind the camera the whole time recording his every move.
- Plus the fact that they were switching camera angles, jumping from one camera to another, took me away from the idea that it was shot on video cameras. I saw what they were trying to do by presenting us the message that everywhere you go, there's going to be a camera recording you somewhere, but it just didn't do it for me. They did a better job with the film "Look" by Adam Rifkin�that's a movie to watch if you want to get the same message.
- The special effects could've been better and kudos for the people who did them with all the movement and motion tracking, but really, it was horribly noticeable. Close but no cigar.
- Maybe this is just me, but I feel as though there was a bit of a homoerotic undertone to this movie, but I don't want to get into that for fear that Jeff will get too excited.
- I didn't care about any of the characters. Not even the mom.

I guess the only thing I did like about this movie was the fact that if this were to really happen, you know that someone would abuse the powers and use them for bad, especially if the person has been treated like the main character had been.

Oh well. Good thing I saw it for free.

Sean

I'm surprised you felt that way about the film. The only thing I was worried about from the trailers was that the characters wouldn't be well developed, but for me I felt for all of them, except for the love interest, which was a throw away character, who could have been done a lot better. I was skeptical of the floating camera idea at first but I thought it worked out well.

Hardly a unique proposition, but one that will capture the imagination of a lot of young kids. In that sense, it felt like a film from the '80s that can inspire and involve kids in the movies.

I half enjoyed the film. All of the best bits really were in the trailer. The film itself has some pretty major pacing problems. There's very little distinction between a first and second act before a third is thrust upon us. I'm certainly no stickler for adhering to hitting page numbers for certain incidents and the like, but the general structure is there for a reason. That would be the film's biggest failure.

Some of the visuals and ideas were pretty good. The end failed to tie Andrew's anger in an emotionally resonant way, though. Yes, they brought the father into play, but as this was properly set up in a clear second act, it flopped a little. Same problem with the cousin. Too much time was spent frolicking around with testing their skills and establishing Andrew was bullied.

This is an easy film to criticise and that is wasted effort. It misses the point. This film is OK, fairly enjoyable and likely to inspire a few young minds. That cannot be a bad thing.

Saw this one last night and it's not a bad movie by any means.

I was interested in the ff aspect with the 7WC coming up and on the whole found it well done, some great ideas of using security cameras and the like towards the end.

On the same note, I had to wonder whether this movie would have been better off not using the ff genre as it sometimes didn't see fit into the story and I found myself asking why they were still using the camera.

The special effects didn't always impress and looked a bit clunky at times, especially some the flying scenes.

The story was okay, a little spin on the usual superpower hype with all three characters seen developing their powers through large chunks.

I actually enjoyed this part the most, to see what typical teens would do with great powers like playing pranks and impressing chicks. Just something different from the usual I thought.

After setting up one as a lonely bullied kid with an abusive father, it was pretty obvious the path he was going to take but the final act didn't really do it for me for some reason.

Yeah, I liked this but think it had the potential to be even more than it was...but seeing that it had a 12 million dollar budget but took over 60 mill don't be surprised to see a sequel in the near future.

It's Stan Lee's old superhero addage distilled for the Facebook crowd.
But they left out the critical element the fuels that conflict... humanity.

The FF elements clashed with the rest of the film at times.
I couldn't tell what was shooting and from where.
And after a little while, I stopped caring.

The CG effects... looked like CG effects.
Though I will give the film credit for not shying away from long effects shots.

The bombastic abusive father and pissy vengeful kid was eye roll candy.

It was like Peter Parker's training scenes with Aspergers patients.
Everything was cracked up to 11, except the brain cells knob.

E.D.

Enjoyed the first half, second half wasn't so good. The main character was a total dick, I don't understand how somebody could like him in any way possible. The father element was ultra gay and cliche, "Abusive father, sick mother." Really!

It was a decent watch though, I enjoyed some bits of it.

This flick definitely had its moments.  I thought the cgi was well done for a low budget project.  And, for a found footage film, the character arcs, particlularly the main character's, were well constructed.

But, I kept thinking the found footage gimmick was completely unneeded here and in fact made the narrative trip over its own feet several times.  You can tell there were times where the director was confused over exactly how to film a scene.  For example, when the drunk dad discovers the camera in his son's room(even though the kid has been lugging it around with him everywhere), we suddenly cut to a confrontation in the basement where the camera is inexplicably set up in the corner of the room.  Same goes for the hospital room scene after the gas station explosion.  Who exactly set that camera on a tripod in front of the kid's bed?  And, uh, who exactly edited this "chronicle" so seemlessly?

I don't really mind the fact that they never tried to even explain the presence of the alien in the cave, but when they returned to cave and found it filled in, with rangers and other personnel watching the kids from the trees, it felt like a subplot that was cut from the final version.

Overall, I found it entertaining, but it's a story that would have been much better told without the found footage hook.

Hey Ryan,

I agree that the found footage aspect caused some awkward situations, but I believe it was done in order to save a ton of money. It would cost too much to film this in the traditional Hollywood way. Necessity is the mother of invention.

it had its moments.....some cool things in the movie - even though the main character turned into a whiney little bitch at the end.

6.5/10

I really enjoyed this film overall, even if there were some pacing problems. The end sequence/battle got annoying with the good guy consistently yelling "Andrew". It got laughable by the end of the film. Overall, though, I felt this was a solid film.

I thought the whole concept of the 'floating camera' - and even the falling camera- was a nifty idea for this film. I can understand why H'wood folks are tryin' to get Josh Trank signed on for every FX project known to mankind. But...as inventive as the film is, I also found the film itself to be uneven.

I didn't mind the lead character being an outcast and gaining some paranormal power, and eventually mis-using the power to lash out at those who wronged him,  stand in the way and personal gain/power. That's Stephen King territory as far as I'm concerned.

The ff does have some problem areas : what's with the jump cuts in master scenes? How did bits of other video get pieced together, considering the ending? The car accident...oh, I was scratching my head over that one. For rules quickly established, I was shocked at the way that was clumisly written AND shot.

Consider: here you have three kids with telekinetic powers. One of them shoves a reckless driver off the road and into the lake. They have to swim in the water to rescue the driver of the truck. When they call the police, the camera is still on.
Here you have a scene of an accident! Here's a guy with a camera! I'm thinking there must have been a deleted scene that might set up a distrust of law enforcement. The officer never once mentions the camera.

There is talk of a sequel, and I don't know how they are going to do it, unless the first act question is addressed, After all, someone else could have found that hole in the ground - and some Gov'ment/Law Enforcement sealed it up. There's also the question of the "pranks" where average folks would be witness to floating teddys and runway shopping carts. Is it a "normal" occurance that it goes unreported? The Red Car lady never questioned why her car was moved, how it was moved, and why the youths would be filming her misfortune.

I think the film was heavily ovverated, but still good overall.

Shockingly, I really enjoyed this!

In a nutshell, I think it comes down to something I always say - it either works or it doesn't work, and this definitely worked for me.

Shot in South Africa on a $12 Million budget, to me, this looks like a $40 or even $50 Million movie.  I was very impressed with the FX.  I'm even more impressed with the WW BOW of $127 Million.

I guess there's probably 2 things that made this work for me (other than the visuals, which I definitely bought into)...

1)  I honestly didn't know where it was going or how it was going to get there.  I knew very little about this going in, which probably helped.

2)  The flying sequences took me back to shockingly realistic dreams I've had throughout my entire life of being able to fly.  The dreams have been so strong that I wake up thinking of the dream as an actual memory, and during the dream, I have the ability to "alter" the view I'm seeing from First Person to that of a camera which is following me around somehow.  Weird...I know...

There was both a playful and dark tone running throughout this, and I always appreciate that, as I don't think reality works one way or the other - more like both.

The finale was impressive and I was actually shocked how much I was digging it.

Like everything, it was far from perfect but when something "works", the flaws aren't all that important, and this definitely worked.

Give it a spin with an open mind and you will most likely be impressed.