| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Dane DeHaan | ... | ||
| Alex Russell | ... | ||
| Michael B. Jordan | ... | ||
| Michael Kelly | ... | ||
| Ashley Hinshaw | ... | ||
|
|
Bo Petersen | ... | |
| Anna Wood | ... | ||
|
|
Rudi Malcolm | ... | |
|
|
Luke Tyler | ... | |
|
|
Crystal-Donna Roberts | ... |
Samantha
(as Crystal Donna Roberts)
|
|
|
Adrian Collins | ... |
Costly
|
| Grant Powell | ... |
Howard
|
|
| Armand Aucamp | ... |
Austin
|
|
|
|
Nicole Bailey | ... |
Cala
|
|
|
Lynita Crofford | ... |
Casey's Mom
|
The shy, lonely and outcast teenager Andrew Detmer is bullied and has no friends at high-school and lives with his abusive and alcoholic father Richard Detmer and his terminally ill mother Karen. Andrew buys a camera to film his everyday life. His cousin Matt Garetty drives him to school and invites Andrew to go to a party at night. telekinetic abilities and Andrew becomes the most powerful. But he easily loses his temper and becomes dangerous while Matt tries to control him. When his mother needs a medicine and Andrew does not have enough money to buy it, his darker side overcomes and he becomes a menace. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I am so glad I chose to watch this at the cinema...I usually don't go to cinemas but it was a night out and we chose Chronicle.
I was expecting a "Sky High" type of film and thank god it wasn't (although that film was brilliant too!) - I actually wouldn't recommend kids watch this.
I didn't know it was a "hand-held camera aspect" type of film and that probably would have put me off but honestly, it really doesn't matter at all and I thought it helped with building a believable story from the kids' perspectives.
It has the usual groan-inducing moments of explaining why the camera is constantly on but that's to be expected.
Story-wise, I can't really fault it. It's realistic and the effects are superb; probably some of the best super power sequences I have seen in a while.
Couple of downsides: I would have liked the "abusive father" stuff to have been less restrained and/or the mother and son scenes to be more poignant because I personally didn't "quite" believe one of the kids' motivation for the things he did; it was also weird that the cousin didn't really spend time with his aunt...I don't want to give too much away though.
I also wasn't happy with the final scene. The ending itself was absolutely superb - I wasn't expecting it to be as massive as it was thinking their budget might prevent that but it was amazing. The very final scene though left me feeling like it wasn't necessary - but it didn't detract from anything that had gone before, it just meant I looked at my friend afterwards and said "why?" instead of "wow!".
But we were both animatedly talking about how brilliant the film was for hours after and how glad we were that we watched it.
One final thing; something happens in the film that I'm not going to spoil...but it was totally unnecessary and harsh - you will know when it happens.
Best and most satisfying film I've seen in ages, 10/10