Chronicle
Director: Josh Trank
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 2.0
A kid with a Canon miniDV camera starts recording his sad sack life and, by chance, comes into contact (along with two others) with some alien entity underground that grants him (and his cohorts) superpowers. The set-up itself - of recording the action by the (fictional) characters - was done before several times (famously in Reeves' Cloverfield) but lends it an air of artificiality that washes over the 'performances'; further, some of the CGI - particularly during the flying/flight sequences - isn't the best (weee, green screen!). Our flawed (anti-) hero's turn to insanity is too mechanically rendered (it starts after a fight with Dad and a failed sexual encounter) for it to have an emotional impact. Speaking of superpowers, you can soar through clouds but you can't hold your liquor? Ahh, such is the power of booze!
