Sunday, November 3, 2013

Chronicle (2012)

Andrew has a rough life.  His mom is terminally ill, his dad is abusive, and he's picked on at school. So it seems like an odd idea when he decides to start filming everything that happens to him since a large video camera will attract more negative attention and he doesn't have anything good to remember anyway.

When his cousin convinces him to go to a party, Andrew reluctantly agrees and brings his camera.  After an altercation inside, Andrew ends up alone again until his cousin and a football player (who is friends with his cousin) ask him to bring his camera with them.

The three end up in the woods where there is a hole in the forest floor. Andrew follows the others into it and they find a tunnel with a huge glowing object at the end of it.  It knocks them out and they wake up later not having any recollection of what happened.

They also notice that have acquired some sort of power and can move things with their minds.  The more they practice, the better they get and Andrew discovers he can fly. Soon they're all zipping through the clouds which seems kind of stupid for any number of reasons.

After an incident where Andrew sends a tailgater off the road causing the other two to rescue the driver  from his overturned truck, they agree never to use their power against any living thing. But Andrew's got ideas of his own and whereas the others use the power for fun, Andrew practices night and day to increase his control and his overall power. Yup, no sign to be alarmed. Just a bitter non-social teen with the power to destroy anything that gets in his way.

Now here's where the movie goes off the rails.  A sympathetic character has to be justified in their actions, or righting a wrong,  in order to remain sympathetic instead of just becoming a psychotic asshole.  So guess which way Andrew goes?  It's like when the family member of a serial killer says he was a good guy, and everyone else is thinking, well then he shouldn't have slaughtered tons of people then.

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