From movies like Jumper, Push, Next, Clockstoppers, and some other movies about people getting superpowers and using it for their own good, Josh Trank and Max Landis have pulled of the impossible. So what is it about this movie that i liked so damn much, well for one thing i loved the pacing and the timing in this movie, for a running time of 83 minutes, the movie doesn't waste your time and gets to the point very quickly and perfectly. Another thing is how realistic this movie is, with the camera work, it definitely worked out for this movie, and the characters were aware of it, which was a major plus in my book. I could say so much more, but what i will say is my regards to the director and writer for delivering one of the best movies of the year, and were only getting started.… Expand

Its rare to find movies that actually portray what average people would do if they had super powers. Chronicle was a very good movie. where the special effects lacked, the story and characters shined.

When I first saw the trailer for this film it looked very exciting, an on-edge gritty film which I looked forward to watching. However, the documentary style doesn't work with this sci-fi film as you seem to miss the action being constricted to a shoddy camera angle in which it is hard to make out what is going on. There is also a disappointing ending which feels like the whole build up of tension was for nothing.… Expand

Cloning of superman, three youngsters acquire superpower when falling in a trench. The first part of the movie focuses on the fun side of possessing such power. The second part is the dramatic turn of events when a superpower is badly used and one of the three youngsters is killed by the bad guy, one of them. The movie is seen by the camera of one of the three youngsters, they are posing and laughing nonsensically in front of his camera. The audience felt bored and cheated.… Expand

I don't usually go to bad movies, but when I do, I remember why it's a waste of money. The 'hand-held' gimmick contributes nothing to this film, and it seems to have distracted the director from providing the kind of pacing expected in a movie with so much action. There were a number of times in this film when something was supposed to be a surprise, or exciting, and everyone in theater just laughed awkwardly. A disappointing treatment of a good idea.… Collapse

After discovering a mysterious "rock" in a hole, three guys become able to move things with their mind. This starts out cool and fun, but develops into the inevitable grand disaster. The effects are numerous and convincing, but the pacing is often slack. The movie is created from "found" footage (a la "Cloverfield" and "Paranormal Activity"), which creates a subjective and non-traditional narrative flow. You have to go with this flow to accept the story, but the real question is: is it worth the teenage angst and tedium for a lot of cool visuals?… Expand

I usually don't like shaky cam movies and when I first saw the trailers for Chronicle, I wasn't exactly too keen on watching it. I finally sat down to watch it the other day and was amazed that I almost missed one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. All I can say is that if you're a comic book fan, go and watch this movie. Max Landis and Josh Trank really know their comics.

Finally! A superhero movie I don't laugh at. Chronicle shows, not akward or unfortunate nobodies who by some accident develop superpowers and decide "I wanna dress funny and save complete strangers". True, the three main characters do develop superpowers by literally stumbling into them, but they dont start playing superhero/supervillain until they absolutely have to; in fact, never once in the movie was the word "superhero" even used. When I first saw the trailer, I thought to myself "Well, that's the movie, right there. No need to go see it. Boy, was I wrong. I won't reveal much about the plot or characters, but suffice it to say the trailer actually barely reveals anything at all. The acting has its ups and downs, and admittedly the movie could be a little better paced, but for the most part everything balances out. It's worth a look, for sure.… Expand

Not a big fan of the shaky camera like Paranormal Activity. I loved this movie because it has a very good story line, and his keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Definetly worth watching! Wasn't crazy about the ending so much but loved the plot and unique script. Was interested through out the entire movie and audience deemed to be as well.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. With a cringe on my face and bag of lollies in hand, I prepared myself for another handy-cam filmed cliche teenage superhero film. Sigh. I was willing to give Chronicle a chance to be better than just another Paranormal Activity film, but it failed. The film starts out having you feel sorry for senior student Andrew (Dane DeHaan) as he sets his camera up to catch his abusive father in action. The story then begins to unfold as Andrew, his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and their newly made friend, Steve (Micheal B Jordan), wander into the woods and down a hole in the ground. I know that in this bit I had hope for it as they show an organism within a glowing blue stone that reminded me of the 'black oil' from the X-Files, but they didn't further on this at all through the film. Obviously the boys gain supernatural telekinesis powers form this glowing stone. Things unwind and are quite boring as the boys powers strengthen, they learn to fly and become popular with the ladies. At this point I was so stressed about how un-entertaining the film was, but then it got a tiny bit better. Andrew, being the strongest of the group, takes his powers to the next level. Being edged on by the abuse form his father and slowly dying mother, he believes he is at the top of the food chain with his new found power. Although, just when you think they weren't going to add in the cliche of having 'super hero suits', it happens. I don't want to ruin the ending for you, but it does getting a little exciting but still a little overdone as the film winds down with a very anti climactic ending. It had the chance to change my view on hand-cam style films and bring something new to the table, but I think it was overdone even when Cloverfield was released.

Chronicle is mainly aimed for teeny boppers who are easily amazed, or people like me who were bored and decided to go to the cinema willing to give a super hero film a go. All I can say is, Chronicle sure did do a good job of having me on the edge of my seat feeling stressed and slightly pre-occupied with everything but the screen.… Expand

I can't believe I sat through this movie. About half way through I wanted everyone to die so it would end. Everything about this movie was thin. The characters were barely two dimensional and the plot was driven by cliches. The dialogue could have been written by 13 year old. Amateur night at the cliche house.

A great little superhero inspired film, one of the strengths of the film is how it surprisingly manages to do something interesting with the found footage motif. The film does a great job at making a complex, sympathetic villain, a sort of modern re-imagining of the Lex Luthor story.

While initially the combination of a whining lead character and the shaky cam was a massive turn off, as the film got into full swing I started to really appreciate it, to the point where I didn't even notice it anymore. The film has a superb use of effects, from the subtle to the downright ridiculous, everything has a hyper-realistic shine to it that really adds to the effect and overall feel of the movie. Very well paced and I really loved how the movie took a proper (though admittedly predictable) dark turn. Beautifully subtle while at the same time tastefully in your face, one of the best action movies of 2012 without a doubt and one to watch again.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. "...film everything," that's the manifesto Andrew comes up with in his room. This idea comes to him well before the amateur filmmaker and his "friends" acquire their superhero abilities. It's not spectacle that he's after. Compared to other "found films", such as The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, Andrew's intent, in Chronicle, as the fllm's protagonist, differs strikingly from the investigative journalism-minded Heather(who leads the two young men to their doom in the Maryland woods), or Hudson, the videographer turned documentarian, at a friend's farewell party, when NYC comes under attack by a monster. Like Cloverfield, it's an inciting event that transforms Chronicle from a prosaic record of mundanity into an exercise in genre. Differing from Hudson, however, is the fact that Andrew starts off with an aesthetic, a narcissistic one which echoes the hyper-real self-art of Jonathan Caouette, the brainchild behind Tarnation, the 2003 doc which formalized navel-gazing and surpassed the voyeurism of Capturing the Friedmans. Andrew uses the camera like a salve, as does Caouette, and as does "Heather", who screams, "It's all that I've got," after being told repeatedly by Josh to put down the camera. And thus the troubled teen points the lens fixedly at the physical abuse he suffers at the hands of an alcoholic father, and also to apply some objective distance between himself and his ailing mother, the latter parent recalling Renee from Tarnation, with the difference being that Caouete's mom suffered mentally. As Jonathan does, the introverted boy looks through his lens unflinchingly, not shying away from his mother's decay, bedridden on account of some unnamed disease. Uncannily, The Magnetic Fields song "Strange Powers" plays over the Tarnation soundtrack, bridging both Cloverfield("On a ferris wheel looking out on Coney Island," the place where the J.J. Abrams film ends, from a section that Hudson doesn't tape over, featuring Beth and her China-bound beau, just days before the invasion), and the strange powers accrued by Andrew and his cohorts from their contact with the monolithic object that they discover in the hole, itself possessing a magnetic field. The boys become telekinetic. In particular, Andrew, a modernization of Carrie White(Sissy Spacek), from the Brian DePalma shocker. At school, Andrew is a target for bullies, mean boys who think nothing of breaking the his camera. Are they a match for the mean girls who taunt Carrie? It's hard to say, due to the film's first-person perspective. What humiliating footage does Andrew leave out? The audience's knowledge is limited. When the camera is off, for all we know, Andrew is being pelted by condoms in the boys' locker room, therefore, the inter-textuality of the aforementioned films includes Carrie, too. Tarnation also chronicles Caouette's school life. We see that Caouette also brought his SUper-8 camera for the expressed purpose of taping stage rehearsals, a Blue Velvet remounting; a musical adaptation cut in the same vein as the infamous Stephen King-inspired Broadway fiasco. During this period, Caouette, the teen impresario, had an affinity for Carrie, as he and his collaborator would quote lines, according to the extra-diegetic titles. Most memorably, the admonition forewarned by Mrs. White, Carrie's fanatically religious mother, who warns, "They're all going to laugh at you," just before her daughter leaves for the prom with Tommy Ross. Among the revelers, joining in the mass chorus of guffaws, is Miss Collins, the the shy girl's so-called mentor. Whereas Matt is nice to Andrew because they're cousins, the P.E. teacher befriends Carrie, purely out of a professional obligation that presupposes a teacher treats both the popular kids and the misfits with equal measures of kindness. If not for the blood ties, Andrews figures that Matt would be his adversary, prompting the documentarian to ask his relative, "Do you even like me?" Matt's answer: "You're really hard to talk to," will have grave consequences for his best friend. It's the same conclusion, in regard to Miss White's true feelings toward her pupil, that Carrie arrives at too late. If only she could've hard the educator admit to the principal that she knew how those girls felt, since "the whole thing," referring to Carrie's first period, "made me want to take her and shake her too." At the prom, you realize that Miss White was once a mean girl too, regaling Carrie with the tale of her special night with the captain of the basketball team, a scenario that the girl couldn't possibly relate to. After Carrie gets doused with pig blood, the teacher's latent disdain for her underling comes out, and dies for it. The same fate that awaits Steve, as Andrew turns into the anti-Thor, striking his cousin's best friend with a lightning bolt in the night sky. Andrew is his own worst enemy, the Elephant(the 2003 Gus Van Sant film) in the room.… Expand

Starts out fun if you can handle the cheap jumping camera tricks. By the middle of the movie it starts to go down hill as in Revenge of the Nerds. The ending is totally predicatable. Could have been better. Made on cheap without any big budget so you can call it success for what it did at the Box Office. For any movie to be good you need to think about it after you leave the theater. Forgotten as soon as you walk out the door. Just a good way to spend a rainy afternoon. No one is going back to see it twice.… Expand

If this is the state of high rated movies today we got a problem. Interesting concept, but so amateurishly handled. The hand held camera concept is getting really boring and so detracts from any tension build up. Characters are a joke. Fake high school kids played by adults - again. So it builds to a mildly thrilling climax, but again diluted by lack of tension. Long boring stretches of who cares. If they had dropped the hand held idea, had better actors, more engaging script, could have been cool. But all in all a waste of money.… Expand

I really enjoyed this movie. At first, the hand held camera bugged me but I got used to it and decided that was the right way to do this movie. What was great about the movie was the exploration of the psychology of the 3 different teens (also the actors really seemed older than high schoolers). All in all, much better than I was expecting.

I had high hopes for this movie, I avoided trailers and reviews on purpose to avoid finding out about any details. I was somewhat disappointed, it drags for most of it and when the details are necessary it speeds through with silliness. I guess there aren't many options for sci-fi being released these days so whatever, watch it if you have nothing better to do...

Its a mix of lawnmower man ( obtains powers ) and cloverfield ( shot from camera ) but is a forgettable movie. It was entertaining how they played with their new powers but there is nothing new here that hasnt been done before.

Chronicle has what many lesser found footage films lack. The genre has a history of sacrificing character for style, of using hand-held filming to hide a lack of budget. This film has very strong performances from the three leads Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan (especially DeHaan) who all play interesting, well-developed characters that you enjoy spending time with, and the film's entertaining premise of the three highschool friends gaining superpowers after the discovery of a mysterious object provides some good laughs and fun spectacle, particularly in the scenes where the boys are learning to control their new gifts. The film also creatively gets round the chief weakness of the found footage genre - who's holding the camera? (the way they do this is a highlight which I won't spoil here). Like Cloverfield, Chronicle doesn't try to provide a concrete explanation for the odd goings on that we witness, but this mostly works for the film, and you should be able to fill in the gaps yourself (at least until an inevitable sequel surfaces which will doubtless expand on the film's universe). Disappointingly, the final act of Chronicle is pretty poor. The action becomes all-consuming and repetitive, the characters are reduced to conduits for the filmmakers to spend their remaining budget rather than anyone you can care about anymore, and the presence of one of the secondary characters is seemingly only to have someone else holding a camcorder. In other words, the film becomes just like all the films it has, up to the final act, been surpassing. Though the finale is an overblown, flaccid bore, the rest of Chronicle is a riot, and feels pleasingly original for a film that is part of a filmmaking craze that has long outstayed its welcome. Here's hoping the sequel builds on the considerable successes we find here, though without Josh Trank's sturdy direction (he's reportedly been headhunted to helm bigger superhero fare), it remains to be seen whether a second instalment will become too big and dumb.… Expand

Its brilliant , its different , it no one ever thought before . Chronicle gives its viewers something totally different . the way they put together the idea of making Superpowers look bad was super . I always wanted to see a movie with superpowers gone bad and Chronicle did it and they did amazing . Josh Trank's direction was super . He is a fine young director and I wish him luck . of the three players I like Alex Russell's character and him acting the best . the effects of the film was amazing . How the hell they did all those with so little budget ! Overall an awesome si-fi thriller movie Chronicle is . Waiting for the sequel .....… Expand

I don't write many reviews (for how many movies I see), however I have to say I was surprisingly impressed with this movie. The acting and special effects were above average, and the story had many interesting themes. You have to dig a little bit deeper in order to get the most out of this movie; but if you're familiar with any philosophy (particularly Schopenhauer), you'll probably find a lot to like here.

8.5/10 (rounding up because some critics were overly harsh)… Expand

To put it bluntly, Chronicle was the worst movie I have ever seen in cinema. I'm actually surprised to see the amount of positive reviews on metacritic. The character development was fairly well done, but the overall storyline was extremely poor. I don't want to reveal any spoilers, but it's really predictable anyway. You have the nerd, the jock and the star who all get telekinetic powers but never really use them for anything worthwhile. The flying was done quite well, although it felt like watching a tv series with slightly better sfx.

Like I said, this movie is the worst I have ever seen, in my opinion of course. It's been a while since I've walked out of the cinema disgruntled.… Expand

What a movie to open the year with (the first new release I've seen this year)! It opens slowly, but builds into a truly fantastic climax that had me very excited throughout. The acting at times is very good and the story is actually quite emotional and can become hard to watch. When the characters get their powers and start to mess around with them is fun to watch as well. Now for the bad points of the film: Some of the dialogue is too cheesy and feels out of place (the ending in particular) and it takes a while to get interesting. From my experience the film splits opinions, upon reflecting on the film, I said the ending was very good, but my friends disagreed. Definitely go into this movie with an open mind, it helped me a lot.… Expand

What a clever film......It's equal party funny and gritty and even a little unexpected.....
I was pleasantly surprised that the 'cam corder' type cinematography, something I hate usually, didn't detract from the experience but added to it.

Overall, this movie was original (although definitely very inspired by any number of different comic books), very creatively done, well-acted all around, and just plain fun.
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I'm a picky movie-watcher. In fact, I rarely watch movies at all, because of the simple fact that it's so hard to find the really good ones mixed in with all the multi-million dollar garbage-worthy flicks, but Chronicle was definitely one of those rare gems. I had no particular expectations going into this movie, hadn't even ever heard of it, I was just doing a random search for a sci-fi movie and Chronicle seemed like it could be decent, but it turned out to be much more than decent. I've never seen a super-power inspired film seem so realistic. The emergence of the "super-villians" teenager-angst dark-side was done at just the right pace, starting off showing subtle tidbits here and there of his darker psyche and gradually leading up to the point where his psychological issues just explode out from him. I also really appreciated the use of the hand-held camera style in this film, usually I'm not a fan of that, but I think it just add to the realistic feel in this film, which is exactly what the director was going for.… Expand

Chronicle starts out with a high amount of promise, combining the visual style of Cloverfield and the plot of a buddy version of Carrie. As the story and characters develop, several different ideas and themes are thrown into the mix, but never really developed in any significant way. In the end all you are left with is a mish-mash of a film that never truly knew where it wanted to go or what it wanted to say. Despite being under 90 minutes, it seemed to last twice as long. Its a shame, because I felt the core idea of the film had a lot of potential, but completely lost in the second half.… Expand