I dislike the "found footage"conceit but thought it really worked well in the climax. Especially for a low budget film. B+.

Review: http://www.worldofkj.com/article.php?i=618

A few observations:

- How awful were those few scenes between Matt and the (hot) blonde girl? So poorly acted and just total pace/momentum destroyers.

- The FX, though impressive overall, were inconsistent in odd ways. A bus being flung through the air over a city is very cool and almost realistic, yet a baseball (a simple, small object) seems completely artificial.

Liked it a lot. It seems like most "found footage" films try to make the worst ending possible these days as if it's like required in the sub-genre, so it was nice to see a movie with a really solid ending. And it's really fun throughout.

I liked it a lot too. They played with the concept really well and it maintained to be interesting from start to end unlike Jumper, or Limitless. The cute blonde chick was underused though and I would love to see a sequel with her (perhaps as one of them) in it.

B+

Definitely as fun as Limitless, with a much better last third. Jumper has nothing on this. It's extremely creative with its camera-work that feels authentic story-wise (as opposed to Cloverfied, where you have to wonder why they even are still carrying it when they were running for their life).

Incredible effects - definitely says something when this only cost $12 million and looks better than most blockbusters.

A-/B+

My only complaint:

The most inventive superhero film in a while, and one of the best found footage films, but much like cloverfield, I felt the novelty is what limits it as apposed to the found footage. What are such limitations: Because it's a suppose real event we're forced to watch mediocre actors; deal with camera angles or different cameras to that force us to only see part of an event;

One of the most interesting things is brought to our attention by Steve, the true highlight and one of the best actors ever in a found footage film. That camera sets up a barrier to the audience to begin with, and it's often times its impossible to overcome. Because of that, I'm forced to say its the best of the "found footage" films. B+

Did it bother anyone else Matt is supposed to be in the snowy mountains of Tibet at the end, and is breathing heavily after a long flight, but his breath isn't visible at all?

You don't have to always have visible breath in snowy conditions. sometimes the temperatures are quite normal especially if its sunny. Not saying thats a a great explanation as they obviously didn't film the scene in tibet, but it is possible. I would have just CGIed it in.

Chronicle is quite well done and achieves it's unambitious goals; however, by simply applying my own super powers of imagination, I can conjure up a far more entertaining act for this particular talent show. Why do these things always have to end in catastrophe? Dream smart.

Still, quite well done.


6 out of 5.

I'm glad it didn't stick too strictly to its found footage conceit and use only a single camera through. Even though the blogger girl was clearly a poorly contrived means of accomplishing this (and, indeed, she should've been done away with altogether), the use of surveillance footage, police cameras, and cell phone video during the final fight works as both a commentary on our technology-obsessed times and an exciting, kinetic way of capturing the action. Gives a real purpose to the flashy editing techniques we're used to.

Still, the film is rather amateurish at times and could've used some more filling out. It doesn't help that none of the characters are that likeable - save for Steve, of course. Count on a Wire alum to save the day.

I actually saw this a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic. A fresh wave of originality and right up there in terms of Cloverfield. ****

5/10 -> C-

A movie that tries to "improve" on the limitations when it comes to found footage movies. The gimmick of jumping from every possible camera and not being limited to one (or at best a couple) camera gets old really quickly. I think the movie even cheats a bit in the final third by having what were clearly regular movie shots as in not coming from "movie character footage".

But what I didn't like the most was a pretty dumb story. I liked the setup but when the whole thing started to shape up in another "with great power comes great responsibility" nonsense I gave up from trying to get into the movie. It doesn't help that the acting is atrocious throughout the movie.

I loved this! Desperately want a sequel.

8/10 (A-)

What a ride! A

It starts off strong but in the end is not as good

B

Pretty great, so far a great year for the found footage genre

Chronicle

I thought it was brilliant. A great 90 minutes of entertainment. Of all the found-footage films released since 1999, this ranks as one of the best, probably just behind Paranormal Activity and its sequels (not the fourth as I haven't seen it yet). I haven't seen a great many found-footage movies, I must add.

All three characters were likeable in their own way, the effects were almost there in terms of believeable (some were better than others), but just the concept alone is what hooked me. I wish a few more scenes of him at school beating the bullies were in there, but I suppose with it being a found-footage movie, it limits your money shots because you have to convince the viewer each time that a camera would have been present (which this film didn't do all that well - people seemed to hold their cameras and get great shots even when in extreme peril). I can, sort of, overlook that, though, because it was just an entertaining ride.

Overall, I think a few more months of thinking the idea through would have made this a masterpiece. I just think they could have made more of the idea than what they did, though I thoroughly enjoyed it. I do love the genre, and I love the crossover into the superhero genre. But now a sequel is needed, whereas if it was done right the first time (like explaining what this alien thing is and what the media and world made of the events they caught on camera), it wouldn't need one. Ah well, bring on Chronicle 2! I'm up for another fun ride.

B+

Dane DeHaan's performance as Andrew is superb. Between this film and Lawless, he is definitely my favorite new face of last year.

I thought I'd seen him somewhere. Yeah, he did well in both.

I would love a sequel. Not because I need anything explained, but because I loved the first and think a sequel would be a blast.

This seems very well received...have to check it out.