Chronicle was the first movie we saw in theaters in 2012. We would have never noticed it if our friend wasn't excited to go see it for his birthday. Alex and I have a movie theater system: except under special circumstances, we do not watch movies in theaters unless they receive a rating of at least 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Overall, Chronicle scored 84% from 146 reviews. If you have not yet seen Chronicle, I don't plan to spoil it for you. I will go into the minor plot elements meantioned in the trailer.
The movie is about three guys who mysteriously develop super powers. As they explore these power, Matt and Steve become concerned that Andrew has a dark side.
The film was fairly low budget with an estimated budget of about $12 million. It is a "found footage" film like the Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and The Troll Hunter. The explaination for filming in this style is that Andrew has decided to film everything in his life.
The best part about this movie was how real and honest it felt. This is how I would imagin typical high school teenager to react to getting super powers. The acting was great and the characters were relatable. The special effects were also well done and the CGI did not take away from how the movie felt.
My biggest criticism was the use of "found footage" in this film. Unlike The Troll Hunter, this film could have done without it. At times, the filming felt forced which did take away from the movie. The writers had to keep coming up with "creative" ways to explain where the footage was coming from and, when there was just no way to explaine it, they ignored it. This problems was not so glarring that it ruined the film. In fact, I didn't think much of it until we started discussing these issues afterwards. In hindsight, it's just silly not detrimental. This movie would have been just as enjoyable if it had been filmed in a normal manner and if the writers didn't waste their time coming up for explaination for the movie cameras.
A few days before we watched Chronicle, we also watched The Troll Hunter, a Norweigian Horror/Fantasy film that came out in 2011. This film is about college students investigating mysterious bear killings as part of a school project. They begin to stalk an evasive hunter who they believe may be behind these killings. After the hunter eventually agrees to participate in their documentary, the students discover that sometimes fairytails are real.
Like Chronicle, this film also has a low budget of about $19,900,000. It is filmed like a "mockumentary". The difference between this movie and Chronical is how well the filiming style fits into the movie. There is no camera ackwardness that detracts from the movie. Since this movie is supposed to be a documentary, the style feels natural.
Similar to Chronicle, this movie is also very well acted, has a great story and great special effects. It's also very funny but, I suspect, not as funny as it would be if I were Norweigian.
Overall, we highly recommend both Chronicle and The Troll Hunter as great movies worth watching.
