Chronicle

What would you do if you suddenly had superpowers? Would you become a hero or a villain? Or would you play tricks on people just for the hell of it? Anyone who's ever read a comic book or watched a film or TV spin off from one has wondered this - don't lie, you know you have!

In recent years the latter two genres have focused almost exclusively on the dark side of having such power. Chronicle is no exception. Directed by Josh Trank Chronicle is in many ways unoriginal from it's loser lead, Andrew, played by Dane DeHaan, to it's shooting by Andrew's video camera. Does that make it a bad film? No it's doesn't. The friend I went to see this with said it reminded her of Carrie, and that's a recommendation in itself.

In Chronicle Andrew is a loser. Bullied at high school, bullied & undermined by an alcoholic and abusive father at home, he starts to film the world around him, which is pretty bleak what with the bullying and his dying mother. So far so cliched. He has no friends just a cousin, Matt, played by Alex Russell, who takes him to a party, where along with popular kid & class president candidate, Steve, played by Michael B Jordan, they make a discovery underground. We don't see exactly what this is but soon after the three boys begin to develop telekinesis. And nosebleeds. A sure sign that this will not end well.

The pranks the boys play with their new power are amusing until Andrew (of course) goes to far and almost kills someone. Matt then lays down rules which they should follow. The other two agree but we can see that Andrew has no remorse. What he has done means nothing to him. Oh dear.

The boys then discover they have another ability; they can fly. Cue quite amazing shots of them zooming through the clouds - I say amazing because this is a low budget film, just $12m as opposed to the last Mission Impossible film which had a budget of $150m. The sheer joy of being able to fly is well expressed and brings them closer together.

Things even look up for Andrew when Steve talks him into entering the school talent show. Using he powers he wins over his normally hostile or indifferent fellow students. But of course it all goes wrong with a girl (who looked old enough to be his mother by the way) and Andrew heads into a downward spiral ending in confrontation and death. And blowing up lots of buildings, cars etc.

The moral of this story is - don't give superpowers to the damaged teen. But go see the film anyways.