I was at the movie theatre recently with some friends and we saw the movie Chronicle. While most of the people I was with were none too fond of the movie as a whole I actually thought it was fairly well done. The basic premise of the movie is that 3 high school seniors discover some sort of rock in a cave that ends up giving them telepathic powers. In layman’s terms they now have the ability to do almost anything with their minds, from moving cars to actually flying. This powers lead to one of the characters getting killed and the other 2 end up fighting each other as the one(who has been bullied his whole life) ends up snapping and using his powers to do whatever he feels like. One thing you will notice about this movie first is the way its camera is used. It makes extensive use of "shaky cam" and is almost always filmed in the first person. This is supposed to give the movie the look and feel of a documentary which to its credit it does a fairly good job of doing so. Another thing about the movie is that to me at least the theme is fairly obvious. It shows some of the traumatic side affects bullying and abuse has on a person. The main character is shown throughout the movie being bullied at school and beaten by his father at home, these events lead an otherwise normal person to go over his breaking point and begin using his powers wantonly without regards for the consequences. This movie is clearly being used to show that sometimes the little guy who everyone picks on winds up not being so little after all.
February 16, 2012
Chronicle
I was at the movie theatre recently with some friends and we saw the movie Chronicle. While most of the people I was with were none too fond of the movie as a whole I actually thought it was fairly well done. The basic premise of the movie is that 3 high school seniors discover some sort of rock in a cave that ends up giving them telepathic powers. In layman’s terms they now have the ability to do almost anything with their minds, from moving cars to actually flying. This powers lead to one of the characters getting killed and the other 2 end up fighting each other as the one(who has been bullied his whole life) ends up snapping and using his powers to do whatever he feels like. One thing you will notice about this movie first is the way its camera is used. It makes extensive use of "shaky cam" and is almost always filmed in the first person. This is supposed to give the movie the look and feel of a documentary which to its credit it does a fairly good job of doing so. Another thing about the movie is that to me at least the theme is fairly obvious. It shows some of the traumatic side affects bullying and abuse has on a person. The main character is shown throughout the movie being bullied at school and beaten by his father at home, these events lead an otherwise normal person to go over his breaking point and begin using his powers wantonly without regards for the consequences. This movie is clearly being used to show that sometimes the little guy who everyone picks on winds up not being so little after all.
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It so happens I was one of the friends you were with to see the movie chronicle. I also enjoyed this movie in opposition to some of the people in our group. I feel that because they used 3 characters instead of one main character it made way for a more interesting movie experience. you felt like you were in the movie with the "shaky cam" it gave you a feel like you were also the camera because one of the character would control what you saw and would put you in places and would move you with his powers. I also agree with what you said about the theme of this movie. It shows you how a person that has been picked on all of their lives can become someone who will end up on top of the people who looked down on them. Also the lighting was very well used in this throughout the movie the lighting is mostly outside and tells you the time of day at that scene. Also there were some spot lights to show you the important parts in the fight between the two characters that are fighting. This movie also shows how little things in someones life can lead up to big events that can effect a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteI too was recently at the movie theater watching the movie Chronicle though it would appear that most of the group of people I went with enjoyed to the movie to a degree. Chronicle, as mentioned above, was filmed as a found footage movie meaning there was liberal use of the “shaky cam” throughout the movie. However midway through the movie one of the boys learns how to make the camera float behind him while practicing his new found abilities. This was a brilliant move on the film-makers part because it allows the camera to be pulled out into a third person perspective instead of the typical first person associated with shaky cam. The move allowed for different camera angles to better frame certain scenes (typically involving action) and stops the camera shaking around when the characters are on the move. Secondly, I definitely agree with you on the theme of the movie. However, I would like to add that there is a secondary theme in Chronicle. That theme would be that when people who are unprepared from power suddenly have it thrust upon them, they will have no idea how to use it, and will most certainly abuse it.
ReplyDeleteI recently went to see the movie Chronicle and was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It’s about three boys who go exploring in a cave and end up obtaining a supernatural power from it that allows them to move things with their mind. When the boys discover their new power, they keep practicing with it and make it even stronger. One of the boys, Andrew, who was constantly picked on at school and at home by his dad, had a lot of built up anger and he begins to take this anger out on people by abusing his new found powers. Andrew’s behavior illustrated a theme that when people go from no power to a lot of power, they abuse it. The usage of the “shaky cam” throughout the majority of the movie definitely added to its intensity and gave you a subjective point of view, allowing you to see the story play out through the boys’ eyes. The first person point of view lets you experience the story just as the boys are, making it more interesting than if it had been told in a third person point of view. It also made several scenes much more exciting, for example when they were flying, it seemed almost as if you were too.
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