User reviews

I'm an optimist. The reviews for this movie were all over the place. I wanted to believe the good ones. I was hoping the plethora of bad reviews were just lame attempts to drive the rating score down. I was wrong.

The premise was intriguing to me, even if it wasn't original. But the execution failed on several levels.

The characters were not likable. They were just hormonal idiots. That's the fatal flaw. The nonsensical ways these fools use their new powers just makes you shake your head.

Imagine you have these new powers and abilities. What would you do with that? Think about all of the great things you could accomplish. Instead we are lead down a road of violence and murder. The screen writing was weak. A great premise wasted.

Here's a question for you: You need money because your mom is dying. You have super powers of levitation and strength. Do you: A. Grab some ATMs and get the money you need or, B. Rob a convenience store and get shot?

I hate movies that have promise that deliver so very little. In this case, I did not get my $1.25 value from this movie rental.

The story line is EXCEPTIONALLY weak - easy cover up regarding where they got their powers, no character growth for anyone, plot goes absolutely nowhere.

The plot of government or police knowledge goes nowhere. Are they hoping a part 2 will offer some twist like the bratty runt is brought back to life and breaks free after repeated experimentations on him? Is Steve just in a super-power coma and raises from the dead as a returning superhero? How can this storyline stay afloat?

Other things I didn't quite fully understand:

When you see the fork get bent up from the experimental stabbing, it seems odd that other characters can fall from lightening, fire, bullets, and statue piercing.

The handycam style gets tedious. Perhaps I don't understand this 'genre' if that's what people are now calling it. OK, so is this a found-footage film, pieced together puzzle cam, or simply a style of bumpy ride that makes you feel you're experiencing life behind any camera? The film jumps around from lost huge cam, mini handycam, blogger cam, security cam. If the boy comes from meager background, how is it that he lost his cam in the cave, carries a new one afterwards without any notice of financial difficulty, video or audio quality change? It seems even less plausible that righteous cousin would even continue using a cam to 'chrnonicle' this story after the fall of his runt cousin. I hate to think about this more, it simply wastes my time and energy.

It's kind of presumptuous they chronicle it 'I' already as I'm truly hoping nobody decides to invest in further development nor the consumer spend their disposable income and valuable spare time on this rubbish. Star Wars IV was a multipart story that at least ended on it's own very well. I'm sorry but this is nowhere near as interesting.

Three of the dumbest teenagers on planet Earth (and that's amongst fierce competition at their high school) acquire powers that far from turning them into super heroes, turns them in to ultra dumb fatheads with incredible super powers, who apart from shouting and whooping at each other (do all American kids truly behave like that? It's exhausting) at every given opportunity, spend an in ordinate amount of the picture spouting banal dialogue (12 year olds would get it perhaps) and being completely thick. I know when we're young we're unworldly and naive and given to making rash judgements and poor decisions, but these guys get the award stereotypical teen movie morons. Of course its in the script - if indeed there was one for much of the dialogue seemed off the cuff and spontaneous. The three principles are really good at their craft, working with what was a clichéd portrait of American schools and teens. Yuh know, the school bullies, the cheer leaders, the party animals right down to the local neighbourhood thugs in Andrew's (one of the three boys and principal characters) Piney leafy neighbourhood, albeit a neighbourhood that's distressed and low rent. I got very frustrated by the illogical and banal dialogue and just couldn't see how the three boys could continue to be around each other as they spent a lot of time at loggerheads and being macho (Yawn!) with each other. As long as you're not looking for any intellectual approach to the script this will satisfy those who have been missing Superman lately and in fact at times it put me in mind of one of the early Superman movies with Christopher Reeve. Its Schlock as far as I'm concerned, but kids will probably identify with it.... sadly! Good performances from Alex Russell and Michael B Jordan and a truly terrifying performance from Michael Kelly as Andrew's drunken sadistic father.

This one was supposed to be a sleeper hit,but has it achieved the desired effect? honestly I'm not sure. The opening is that of a typical American teen movie and will definitely appeal to audiences in this age group. Before you know it you're lost in the crazy action of cameras and boys exploring their childhood fantasy of flying. I enjoyed the modest amount of action this movie provided,especially Andrew a depressed and unpredictable character.In fact,Chronicle could have out performed most big budget films if the camera was used more smartly to capture some of the shots that we didn't get to see.Watch it yourself to see what I mean. Overall not a bad one beside I went to see it.

Three high school students go into a cavernous hole and come out to discover they have super powers. Yes, somehow alien (UFO) technology is involved.

I think the point of the story was supposed to be: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And, maybe it was. As for me, I saw the movie as pointless. Remember the movie Jumper, which I also labeled as pointless? Hmmmm…… tough room. Anyway the same thing here.

Okay, the students had fun with their powers on a small scale and even participated in a school talent show and did some amazing things. Then, as we knew it would, things got out of hand as their powers increased. And, we are presented with out-of-control kids, especially the angry one called Andrew (Dane DeHaan) who was always picked on by other students and whose home life is the catalyst for all that follows.

One would think that when adults saw what was happening, particularly at the talent show, the kids would be corralled and asked to explain, but then that would be another movie. Hence, we are left with this show where no one noticed what was happening.

The movie is watchable due to good acting and the CGI stunts are nothing but super fantastic. Kudos. However, people who have super powers are supposed to use their abilities for good.

As a possible good Sci-Fi movie, this fails because we see a kid who is so out of control he cannot be saved; and the damage he does is mind boggling proving that absolute power does corrupt absolutely. Of course in Andrew's case, his anger helped fuel everything. We cringe as we watch things that should not happen.

So what are we left with? Very good CGI entertainment, and very bad behavior that is not entertaining. As I said pointless.

If you had super powers, how would you handle things? Huh?(4/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Only some soft stuff and not much of that.

I am not sure if I was in the same movie the other viewers were in viewing this movie.

It never provided the reasoning behind how and why they received the power; sure teenagers are daring but to go into an "unknown content" black hole and move around is unheard of.

As the movie proceeds it becomes more and more predictable...the effects, as usual Hollywood thinks that the average movie goer just needs a great effect and that makes the movie good...not in this case.....

I was so tired of seeing the flying and leaping and such....the actions with no meaning for the action and the usual 3 guys or girls who meet all the diversity criteria to please the audience....but no real substance to the characters.....and the ending well it leaves very very much to be desired for...but for the ones that think its good, the ending is an indication there will be a Chronicle II....

This film was really hard to watch, more than half of it is about three teenagers screaming for any reason (it looks like American teenagers like to scream a lot) and the main character, Andrew, is completely unlikeable in every way. If you still tolerate these 2 factors, you'll get to the ending of the movie which has some really nice superhero shots of two of the two main characters fighting, it is your only payoff for going through all this.

What a complete and utter bag of hammers.

I'm starting to think that this found footage cobblers is the most annoying type of film making out there. It gives an excuse to lower standards, jump from scene to scene without any rhyme or reason and the acting always seems weak and improvised to me.

I watched the whole thing but honestly started to tune out after 20 minutes. It just wasn't worth the effort.

I was hoping for so much more and it didn't deliver. Maybe it's just me. There seems to be a lot I decent reviews out there and critics seemed to think it was decent. I just happen to think it was a gimmick film. The annoying thing is I find the premise cool and would like to see it revisited properly.

Wow. Where to start with this one.

I was pumped. This kind of thing is right up my alley. I've liked similar films: Defender, Kick-Ass, Cloverfield, Blair Witch.

Chronicle, however, was a gigantic let-down. So gigantic - that a detailed negative review might need more pages than the script itself.

There is NO character development here. We know little to nothing about them at the beginning of the story, and we learn nothing more as the story moves along.

There isn't enough interaction with other people, and when we do see this, we get nothing more than silly pranks.

The effects were sub-par, and the movie didn't really hash out any specifics on the mortality of the characters.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe which is; what is the point? There is no moral here, there is no story here, there is no ending here, there is no connection with the central characters. I cannot think of one character that was likable, not one, and to top it all off, the whole movie seemed extremely unrealistic in how it unfolded.

I know it's a superhero/power movie and it's not supposed to be realistic, but you just get the feeling when it's over that it's definitely NOT how this would have transpired.

A clear, concise idea with pre-production potential. Nothing more.

Skip it.

41/100

I can see that a number of people enjoyed this movie, and on one hand the premise is interesting, but I felt entirely letdown by the second half of the film. Movies don't have to be totally realistic, but when they're well done, we should be able to "suspend our disbelief". Through a combination of sub-par plot development and scenes that felt too over the top, at times it just seemed silly. I also had difficulty with Andrew's character -- rather than finding myself emotionally invested in understanding and caring about his internal struggles, I largely just felt annoyed. I also felt like there should have been more depth to the "sci-fi" aspect: I felt unsatisfied by the lack of further development on how this all came about or if there was any deeper connection between the origin of the powers and any of the plot elements. Sure, we can be left to make our own conjectures, but the film gives little to build from.

(Purposefully left this vague to avoid plot spoilers)

I liked the story itself, Even though I'm a little old for the demographic group of this movie. However I'm very much into sci-fi / action / Marvel comic book super heroes kinds of movies, so other than it being a high schoolish group I was on board with the material. The script I thought was decent and actually the special effects were pretty good as well for being a 'B' low budget kind of movie. So all these factors for me bumped it up to a 4/10

That said what knocked it down for me was the whole hand held camera aspect which I just couldn't get into and at times really bugged me. Granted it probably didn't help that I was more near the front, so perhaps sitting in the back more would have helped some. But movies like this, Blair witch project and Cloverfield where the entire movie is filmed with a hand held camera and most of the time a foot away from peoples faces shaking much of the time, while some may argue tries to bring a realistic "being there" kind of feel, but to me I go to a movie to get away from reality and just to be entertained, not to be turned dizzy for $10. You want to create that "being there" feel, then do it in the 8mm like Saving Private Ryan, not like this. Within the first 2 minutes of this movie I felt like walking out, and that feeling persisted for about the first 20 - 30 minutes. Luckily though the movie picked up and I could kind of get past the hand held cam bit. But the other dumb thing about the movie was all the emotional scenes and there must have been 5-6 of these where someone would say "Just turn the camera off" and you as the viewer are thinking "yeah and then you'd have no movie" which pretty much leads into my other big related gripe which was far too much attention was being given to the camera itself, to the point where it too should have been listed in the credits.

Another thing for me was the lead character, a rather boring very introverted, creepy looser type of kid who at times was just painful to watch. His friends weren't that much better either and I don't really blame this on the actors per say, I think they acted exactly as scripted and directed

Overall I think I would have liked this movie a whole lot better had it been shot with standard cinematography rather that this hand held crap and I don't think it would have taken away anything from the film and I now know never to see a movie filmed in this way again, no matter how good the material / story may be

I suppose Chronicle is a sufficient movie, but I wouldn't call it enjoyable. It has a bit of a nasty streak, a relatively incoherent plot, and a brief running time, although the latter might be considered a positive. It's grimy, unreasonable, and seems to give off a generally displeased vibe, as if it just didn't want to be made in the first place.

The plot synopsis says that three friends find Something underground that gives each of them telekinetic powers. Well, two of them are cousins who only kind of tolerate each other, and one is an introvert with whom the other two hang only because he has a HD videocamera. Comes in handy when you want to film yourself flying around Seattle.

Yes, it's another movie shown through the perspective of another camera lens. In some movies, this gambit works; the process makes the viewer feel more a part of things, as if he or she is experiencing the story just as the characters are. Here, though, we feel conversely removed from the proceedings, as if we're watching a movie being filmed. That's because quite a bit of suspension of disbelief is required for this kind of movie, and trying to introduce the veritas of a camera just doesn't gel with the intent.

Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is the kid with the camera, Alex Russell plays his smart cousin Matt, and Michael B. Jordan is class president/popular kid Steve. At a rave - yes, they do still exist - the three find a big hole, wind up in it, find something that's not explained (doesn't have to be) and soon find they can lift objects, including themselves.

The basic morality of the movie is the use of their new powers - for fun, for good, or for something else? Matt wants rules, such as no hurting people. Andrew, who has been repressed and abused for most of his life, chafes at that possibility. Steve just sort of wants to have fun. Matt uses these new-found powers to help get Andrew out of his shell - he knocks 'em dead at the school's talent show and is the man of the hour at the big party afterwards - but it's soon obvious that the years of pent-up rage are affecting Andrew along with his powers, and something's gotta give.

I don't need to tell you what. Bad things happen. Friendships are questioned. There is death and plenty of mayhem. After a while, I stopped being interested in the dynamics within the Steve-Matt-Andrew friendship, and even the effects became rather lame, uninspired, and impotent. We see them fly, even toss a football while way up in the sky, but we don't get to see them fly through the city, a la Spider-man. Well, you know what I mean. We see a lot of little stuff, then some parlor tricks.

The film moves as if it's late for something. When a character turns, you expect to feel something - glee, disdain - but here there's nothing to be felt, because we're immediately whisked away to action of some kind. In fact, it's not that there's a lot of action but rather many, many short scenes with some action in them. If you add that to shallow plot development, you get a mundane movie that should be anything but. The actors don't do the plot any favors, either; it feels as if they were selected because they were unknown, not in spite of it.

I didn't have high hopes for the movie, although I did think it would be more like Jumper or Push, which shows you how little I anticipated Chronicle to begin with. But I saw it anyway.

There's a quote attributed to Will Rogers, a very practical guy: When you find yourself stuck in a hole, stop digging. I offer this aphorism for consideration to the lead character Andrew in Chronicle and to the filmmakers behind Chronicle as well. Andrew, a shy teenager, finds himself part of a trio of boys who discover a strange crystal artifact in an underground cavern. The crystal, for some reason, gives the boys telekinetic powers. They can move objects with their minds and even figure out how to fly above the clouds. The external benefits of Andrew's new physical power include making new friends, becoming popular at school and even attracting the interest of girls. But ultimately Andrew's damaged ego and personal problems at home are more powerful than his abilities his father is an abusive drunk and his mother has a terminal illness. As Andrew's telekinetic powers strengthen, his emotional self-control weakens. Instead of being a hero, he becomes a menace of violence and destruction. The "chronicle" part of this is that the whole movie is shot in so called "found footage" style. I call it faux-verite. Andrew carries a video camera and his recording of everything that happens is our viewpoint into his rise and fall. There are a lot of movies using faux-verite but experimenting with the form, Chronicle ventures into original territory. I like the special effects work of the suspended objects and flying teenagers. I also like the story in the first two thirds a lot. Is all this really happening to Andrew or are we a voyeur into his fantasy life? Is this an origin story of Andrew as a comic book style hero, or super villain? There are probably a hundred interesting places Chronicle could have taken us but it doesn't go to any of them. Instead the story runs out of gas creatively and begins to get boring, even at under 85 minutes. In the desperate feeling last act, Andrew goes on an I-can-destroy-you-all-if-I-chose power binge. The filmmakers have no idea what to do with their own character. So they drag Andrew into a hole of explosions, nihilism, and waste. Unfortunately, Andrew lacks the ability to think of any better solution than to just keep making things worse. In the same manner Chronicle goes from good, to boring, to bad, to worse. I should mention that I saw a strong homoerotic subtext here as Andrew's fantasy-come-to life seems to be finding a phallic object in a cave and using its secret power to convince attractive, popular boys to runaway with him- just something I was thinking about as I watched this movie go to pieces.

Movie score, if I was asked to watch it again within a week:

10, would watch it again.

7, not anytime soon.

4, once was enough.

1, regret my time.

To be fair, I always loved this movie when I eas younger, and I had watched it back a couple times at least, I always had such great nostalgia for it that when I found out my mom hadn't seen it, I thought it was a perfect choice for us to watch together.

I was eager to show her just how cool the movie was, but now in my 30s and several years since this was first released, not only can I tell what's CGI and what isn't, I can also see how it must've been a lot of fun as an animator to work on.

Besides the perspective of working on this as a project in my line of work and the cool mechanics and budget you get to work with, I also see the blatent flaws with the movie itself.

By the time the movie finally picks up, it's almost over, and things end pretty swiftly, there's no Akira like meltdown in this film, and while I enjoyed the film for what it was, I didn't enjoy it for what or how I remembered it being.

This is easily a film worth watching once and never again, maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't, but I'm in no hurry to watch it ever again, and I actually kinda regret spoiling my memory of it with the reality of what it really was.

Oh well, it is what it is, time and nostalgia sure can play some mind altering tricks, but once again reality has struck and brought me back to how things really are, and this film sadly, isn't what I remember.

My biggest issue with this movie is the found footage format. It works with some movies such as "Paranormal Activity," "REC," and a few others. Then there're movies like "Cloverfield" and this movie which are ruined by it.

1.) The quality is bad.

2.) I don't like found footage when it makes no sense for a person to be filming.

I know that my point number two is becoming less and less relevant as social media has ballooned into this all encompassing giant which causes people to video the most private and the most vile occurrences. Be that as it may, I still can't get with a movie that's found footage of moments I think a normal person would eschew recording.

When I saw a trailer for this movie I thought to myself „This could be good". You don't see every day movie about group of teenagers with superpowers :) But after watching it I can only say that I'm disappointed.

If you want deep story you won't get it. There is no explanation of origin of this superpowers and considering that movie revolves around three friends you would expect that author will try to bring you closer to this guys, but characterization of them is practically nonexistent.

The worst for me was the ending and how predictable it was.

All in all for me it's a film designed for not too demanding teenagers and gaining fast and easy money. I give it 4/10.

Honestly, I am heartily sick of hand held camera, fake documentary Blair witch crap. When are film makers going to realize this is lousy cinema? I mean what do they do? Sit at home and watch reality TV? Enough is enough. The movie had some cool parts-NONE that would be enhanced by a hand held camera. Had it been presented as a movie instead of the dreary "I lack an imagination" documentary it could have been a really good super hero flick. If you, like I, are tired of The Blair witch, The River, fake documentary path cinema has taken this will be one more turn-off. The best I can say is watch the movie and try to enjoy what could have been a really good movie. There are some really cool parts in it....but they were not made better with a hand held camera..or a floating one.