Chronicle Transforms the Superhero Origin Story After a Decade – Hot

2012 was a seminal year for superhero movies. In the spring, the MCU’s groundwork paid off as its now-iconic first Avengers crossover film rolled out worldwide, and in July, Christopher Nolan’s groundbreaking Batman trilogy concluded with The Dark Knight Rises, with DC’s own cinematic universe launching just a year later. Suffice to say, the game had well and truly been changed.

However, with the genre continuing to grow over the past decade to accommodate higher stakes and increasingly outlandish characters, it has become easy to forget that ten years ago also saw the release of one of the more understated entries in the cape n’ cowl canon – namely, one with neither a cape nor cowl in sight.

Shot in a found-footage style, Josh Trank’s Chronicle is a naturalistic, slow-burn take on the superhero origin story that arguably has more in common with the likes of Carrie and Akira than it does with Spider-Man & co. The set-up is a familiar one, as a trio of teenagers happen upon an extra-terrestrial object – bearing a striking resemblance to baby Kal-El’s spikey escape pod from Richard Donner’s Superman – that awakens telekinetic abilities in all three of them.

But what makes the film stand out from its contemporaries is that it doesn’t come instinctively to high schoolers Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Steve (Michael B. Jordan) and Matt (Alex Russell) that they should harness their recently-acquired gifts for the greater good – or any meaningful purpose at all, for that matter. The “power and responsibility” lesson comes as a much more gradual process than the single turning point we often see in origin stories, such as the failure to save a loved one.

Instead, the first half of the 90-minute film is dedicated to amusing pranks and games, from assembling a LEGO kit hands-free to moving an oblivious shopper’s car around the supermarket parking lot as they each attempt to keep a straight face nearby. These buoyant scenes peak with the euphoric moment when the teens learn that they can use their telekinesis to lift themselves off the ground and fly above the clouds, with primary protagonist Andrew suggesting that they should travel all the way to Tibet once they’ve mastered their superpowers.

There’s the sense that the three leads are genuinely enjoying acting out these playful scenes, with their authentic smiles and laughter making the events seem that much more tangible. These characters aren’t just symbols or archetypes – they feel like actual people, and the fourth-wall-breaking eye contact afforded by the found-footage approach helps to include the audience themselves in their tight-knit friendship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-M5Qx57_UU

It’s here that Jordan cements himself as one of our generation’s most charismatic leading men, bringing warmth and sincerity to a “lovable jock” role that could otherwise come across as cliched. He plays Steve, a talented quarterback and leading class president candidate who finds solace in his newfound brotherhood as a place to open up and be himself, free of others’ expectations or assumptions.

DeHaan, on the other hand, plays the perfect outsider as Andrew, bringing underlying resentment and palpable hostility to each scene. Like Steve, he begins to emerge from his shell as the group explores their powers together, but it comes to him much less easily due to his tumultuous home life. Following his mother’s diagnosis with cancer, Andrew’s father turns to alcohol and subjects him to relentless verbal and physical abuse, which is why Andrew is so untrusting and chooses to record each day of his life on the camera through which we observe the story.

Before getting to know Steve, the closest person Andrew has to a friend is his cousin Matt, played by Alex Russell, who effortlessly sinks into his role as Chronicle’s everyman. A stoner-philosopher with notions of becoming something greater yet no immediate desire to do so, Matt’s musings about the world gradually solidify into a moral code that puts him at odds with Andrew’s increasingly reckless use of his abilities.

It would be reductionist to describe Matt and Andrew as the eventual hero and villain of the narrative, however. Andrew’s rage and misanthropy is almost always justified, but with an unknowable, growing power at his disposal, his responses become disproportionate and his worldview distorted and radicalised. He isn’t particularly menacing once his heel turn is complete – the final battle is a teenage boy’s tantrum on an explosive, life-or-death scale, with his monologues on becoming an “apex predator” simply coming off as pitiful. When a wailing Andrew is seconds away from killing a squad of police officers, Matt knows his best friend is too far gone.

The tragic route that Chronicle takes is evident from the start, but to call it a nihilistic film would be a misnomer. It ends with a wistful pang as Matt – alone this time – flies cross-continent and lays Andrew’s camera to rest in the Himalayas. He lets out a triumphant cry that echoes back twice, and bids Andrew one final farewell before the tape ends for good. When all is said and done, the relationship between these three friends isn’t defined by the catastrophe that it inexorably spirals into – rather, it’s the joyous moments from the first act that stay with Matt and the audience above all else.

READ NEXT: 10 Best Superhero Movies of the 2010s