Documentaries [Part 2]: Chronicle
Up till this very day, I always wondered if having superpowers is a good idea for humans. Its mainly because of this movie that made me wonder a lot. Should humans have superpowers? Let's find out.
So, last time we talked about Mockumentaries and The Supernatural. Today, we are going to talk about one of my favorites. Chronicle by Max Landis.
Before he was in Valarian and before the other guy was the second most complex villain since Loki. Dane Dehaan and Michael B Jordan were in the very underrated found footage film; Chronicle. The story centers on the extraordinary lives of three teenage boys who went on a party detour to explore a strange hole underground and later developed telekinetic abilities.
After surviving that unusual night, the boys start building their new powers. Stretching it from holding a baseball to lifting cars and even flying until things went wrong. Andrew, one of the boys turned dark. He started going mad and even killed one of the boys, Steve in an accident. Meanwhile, Matt was getting the girl he liked, Casey thanks to his newfound confidence.
Before Matt knew that Andrew went dark, Andrew was already killing people and stealing stuff. The movie ends bitter, which I will not spoil but you can already guess.
My Theory is that Its like a Muscle
"If you stretch it too far, too thin...It will tear" Cinema Sins might argue about this but in the early stage of their development. Matt and Steve have labeled their new abilities as Telekinesis. Saying that it's like a new brain muscle that is weak and developing which is why their nose bleeds happen so quickly earlier making it a sign that they pushed their abilities too far. Apparently, the theory is that since its new. It's growing stronger by the hour by practice, from a simple ball hold to moving Legos. The boys kept playing with their new abilities and even used it to prank bystanders by moving cars, moving teddy bears and eventually learning how to fly.
The boys also started to develop some internal telekinetic connections to one another. Steve said that he heard Andrew's voice before he met his untimely death. Matt shared the same thing. Saying that he felt a lot of anger coming from Andrew. What is interesting is that Andrew is one of the few examples that my darker self would love where he kills or hurts the people who get what they deserve for acting like the world revolves them and that their bad acts have no consequences. From Andrew's drunk and abusive father to the bullies that picked on Andrew. Which led to this quote. "A lion does not feel guilty when it kills a gazelle, right? You do not feel guilty when you squash a fly... and I think that means something. I just think that really means something." Andrew refers to himself as a "more evolved" person and calls himself "An Apex Predator".
We even see it happen when Andrew gave his bully a nasty tooth job and even fought back against his own dad which...heh heh...I love to bits. My point is, like the muscle theory. Andrew's hate and anger not only gave him power but also made him dangerous which we clearly see in the end. He has no consideration for wanting to tear his prey apart and even kill them. Steve and Matt use their abilities and set up new rules to ensure that they are not above the regular folks. Even in some of the promotional material, there is this quote. "It's all fun and games until everybody gets hurt."
This could suggest some dark development and sure enough, it did but its almost sympathetic. You feel for Andrew who is but a punching bag for his dad and bullies and sure enough. He's fed up and decides to use his powers to fight back.
Max Landis, the creator of the movie is a genius. Tapping into the idea of teenage boys getting superpowers and also what happens when they do. Interestingly, if you ask what was that thing in the hole that gave the boys their powers, the answer that Max will reply with is ultimately very mundane. But truth be told, it does not matter. What matters is what happened to the three boys and that's important. One dies, one is a suspected person of interest and one has become a monster. All three displays the cycle and end to an actual real-life superhero.
There are plans for a second and third but it seems to me, this is a good end for the movie, Chronicle. It stands in my personal life as something that makes me often wonder which one I would be if I were given the power to do stuff that the boys did. So, in the end. What is there to say about this Documentary two-part thing. Well, it leads nowhere really. But I think it's just a great example of how this found footage style can tell a great and complex story. From making fun but also serious to, making it seriously fun. This style is here to stay and I haven't even mention stuff like Project Almanac, The Dinosaur Project and more but that's all for now.
