Chronicle: Not Everyone Wants to be a Superhero

This is a film that follows the trend of telling the story from the perspective of a camera (or cellphone cameras). It is also a film that tries to answer the question of what really happens when someone (in this case a group of three late teens) acquire powers beyond human standards, the decisions they could really make and their motivations. It also offers insight on family matters and how what happens inside a family shapes forever the minds and spirits of children sometimes positively, sometimes negatively.

Three seniors Andrew (Dane Dehaan), an impopular student, Matt (Alex Rusell), his cousin and Steve (Michael B. Jordan) acquire telekinetic powers from an unidentified object plus a special connection which is apparent when one of them overuses the power and the other two feel the surge causing to have nosebleeds.

At first they just do not know what to do and keep it a secret but little by little the power grows stronger and they are even able to fly. The ecstasis they feel is especially strong in Andrew who is the one constantly taping everything in his camera and is understandable since very few things in his life have been good: his mother is slowly dying of cancer, his father abuses him verbally and physically and he is bullied at school. The only good in his life has been Matt, his cousin and the acquisition of the power.

But all begins to fall apart the day Andrew's father decides to beat him again and he reacts violently. A storm breaks out and Andrew is up there. Stevewho is now his best friend looks for him after feeling that Andrew abused his power in his confrontetion with his father. Accidentlly a lightning strikes Steve killing him instantly. The bizarre death creates a division between Andrew and Matt who little by little distance from each other. Andrew trying to obtain money to buy medicines for his mother Andrew uses the power to steal but he gets injured in the process. While in hospital Andrew's father arrives and tells him his mother is deadand he blames him for that. Enraged Andrew throws his father breaking one of the walls of the hospìtal and tries to escape but is confronted by the Police and later on by Matt himself. Soon they are fighting all over Seattle, the city where all of these things happen. Seeing that his cousin is out of control and bent on killing as many people as he can, Matt makes a terrible decision: he kills Andrew and then runs away. 

There is of course a subjacent message in this film: that we cannot have power without facing some consequences and that how that power is used very much depends on the kind of individual education each one of us receive from our parents. Andrew never had an easy life and that was reflected in his decisions.

The actors are not famous and the director is still beginning but their performances here exceeded that of many veterans, the photography is very accurate and realistic as are the effects. You could actually believe everything is happening as it is intended. The story though not really ambitious, tries to be true and honest and does not fantasize too much.

It's a movie with many angles and several proposals for the audience, and it gets a four out of five.