﻿If you and your closest friends were gifted with superpowers, would you really be able to
say you would use the powers for good? Would you use them for your own selfish pleasure and gain?
Well in 2012’s Chronicle, we get a good look at what three highschoolers would do.
Spoiler alert! While this is my opinion on the film,
I recommend you watch it for yourself before you make your own decision.
Link to the film is in the description. We open up to Andrew filming himself in his
bedroom while his father is drunk and banging on his bedroom door.
Well if departing footsteps don’t make you seem guilty, I don’t know what would. Is it really that
easy to scare off a drunk, abusive father? I feel like there’s a lot more to it than that.
Right after that, Andrew’s friend, Matt who is just a super chill guy.
Oh god. Please go to the next scene! Once they get to school, Andrew continues
recording everything, and we get an inside look at Andrew’s lonely life. Later, Matt picks him up
from school and tries to convince him to go to a party later before he drops him off at home.
Well I have a good feeling that Andrew is going to go on some sort of crazy violent
spree later. Just a hunch. Later on, Andrew decides to go
with Matt to the rave. I really want to go to a party
after watching this. This is probably one of the chillest rave scenes I’ve seen in awhile.
This dude was walking around the school with that big setup?! And
he expected to not get made fun of?! As Andrew continues to film the rest of the party,
he seems to just gravitate towards people who would have a problem with him filming them.
Is he seriously crying? The guy threw a drink in his face because he was filming
his girlfriend dancing! I’d be mad too! You can’t walk around with that huge camera
and expect people not to notice it. As Andrew is having his crying session outside,
we meet Steve who walks up to Andrew to ask to borrow his camera.
You can’t even describe the thing you found? This is why people don’t
last in these kinds of movies. When you find something you don’t know,
don’t just keep bothering with it! At first Andrew is reluctant to follow him,
but as they keep going, they see Matt standing over a good sized hole in the ground.
They seem fascinated by the fact that the hole makes sounds.
If a hole in the Earth is rumbling like there’s a dragon waking up,
you run! Just run. It’s not worth it. Of course, Steve comes up with the great idea of
jumping into the hole, and Matt follows suit. Seriously! Sure enough Andrew goes
too. These have got to be some of the dumbest teenagers I’ve ever watched in a movie.
The farther down they go, the closer they get to the source of
a hum that drew them farther in. It’s a little late to be freaking out!
We’re well past that at this point. Suddenly Steve, Matt, and Andrew start to
touch it, but it changes color and starts to move tentacles inside the crystal.
Yep. It’s too late for them. The next day, they are in their
backyard where they are videoing a test of their new powers.
So they can curve balls now? Was that really worth going into that nightmare hole?!
Ok. That’s a little more awesome. I’d much rather have that. That makes it a little
more acceptable to go in that hole. As they continue to showcase their powers,
it becomes apparent that Andrew is way more in tune with his powers than the others. As
they continue questioning how it happened in the first place, they go back to where the hole was,
but now the hole is filled in. Once Andrew gets home, he practices
his powers more as his father is heard yelling in the background. The next day,
he decides to try and open up to more people, but eventually it all goes back to the powers.
Yes. We develop superpowers, and we use them for what? Naturally, something lewd.
As they decide to expand on where they use their powers,
they find themselves at a store where they mess with customers left and right.
They just gave that little girl PTSD that she’ll never be able to explain!
Ok. Impressive, but these powers are growing at an alarming rate. When do they stop?
See?! We went from a stuffed teddy bear to a whole car!
The three of them celebrate as they drive back home, but they’ve got an
obnoxious driver behind them. Too far! We’ve gone too far!
Steve makes them turn around, but by the time they get back there,
the car is sinking into the river. Steve jumps in and pulls the man from the wreckage, but no one
can look at Andrew the same way anymore. Matt calls emergency services, and later
that night, they try to confront Andrew on what he’s done.
It obviously isn’t sinking in that what he did is extremely bad. Already got a
supervillain in the making here. Matt decides to set up rules for them.
Don’t use the powers on living things. Don’t use it when you’re mad.
Don’t use it in open public. Sound rules. This film is like the how not to be a superhero
for dummies video. As they fly even higher,
it becomes apparent that this isn’t just some trivial mind game power.
I don’t know why I didn’t expect that. Should’ve seen that coming honestly.
On the way down, Andrew saves Steve from his free fall, and the group celebrates
the fact that they can fly once they make it down to solid ground.
Interesting bit here, Director Josh made all three of the friends live in
a house together for fifteen days! He had hoped to create a genuine bond between the
three of them to make it believable. Soon after, Matt meets up with Casey who is
another girl that likes to video everything. Her and Andrew should meet up sometime!
While this is happening, Steve and Andrew get some time to open up and explain each other’s sides of
things. This is the perfect moment of the bullied kid getting to open up to the most popular kid in
school. We need more moments like this! That night, the group goes to the high school
talent show where Matt and Casey get to have some face to face time before Steve and Andrew
have their moment on stage. What everyone thinks is going to be a terrible prank on
Andrew turns out to be incredible. I could’ve sworn that one of the rules
was to not use our powers in front of the public anymore! But I guess since
it’s a touching moment, it’s ok right? After an amazing demonstration of the powers
that doesn’t quite give away the fact that he has abilities, Andrew feels like an absolute
winner. WHen he gets to the afterparty, he walks around like he’s the VIP of the party.
Is tonight the night he loses his virginity?! Nice!
Fun fact time! The pink haired girl that Andrew is with is actually played by Anna Wood, who is
Andrew’s actual wife in real life. I might’ve celebrated too soon. Yep. Too
soon. This is a sign of
a serial killer in the making isn’t it?! Later that night, Andrew’s father goes through
his room and discovers the expensive camera he’s been using. When he confronts Andrew about it,
it blows up into a physical altercation. But we know that Andrew isn’t a pushover anymore.
I don’t think he’s going to be messing with Andrew anymore. I’m not entirely sure Andrew will
be just hanging out at home much either. To get away, Andrew tries to fly into a storm,
but Steve finds him. Steve tries to talk him down and say that he can help him deal with his father,
but Andrew is having none of it. Andrew yells about how he doesn’t have any friends,
and he warns Steve to go away. I can respect that he wants to help his friend,
but he probably should’ve listened. Well that was an abrupt ending to
an awesome character. After the funeral, Matt confronts
Andrew about what really happens, but Andrew flies away until later. After everyone leaves,
Andrew returns to Steve’s grave to apologise and tell him that he misses him.
After the incident, Andrew starts to really focus on his powers and tries to develop them
even further at an alarming rate. I’ve been saying it for a long time now.
Leave him be! Or maybe just lock him up now! This is a supervillain! He’s got the shady eyes,
the clenched jaw, and he’s literally Squashing a car like his mind is a compactor!
After Andrew realizes that he can’t afford his mother’s medication anymore,
he turns to actions that define who he’ll become from that moment on.
I feel like most villains start out in a similar situation. Not necessarily always evil,
but out of desperation. Mr. Freeze just wants to save his wife, Sandman just wants to see his
daughter, and Andrew just wants to afford his mother’s meds. Classic villain.
Once he realizes that he doesn’t have enough, he turns to a bigger robbery.
At the local gas station, he robs every cent from the register, but it doesn’t go as planned.
Matt! Come get your cousin!! In the hospital, Andrew’s father
comes to visit him, and it turns out that Andrew’s mother died after he went out.
His father blames him for it, and he demands that Andrew apologize to him for taking him
away from her in her moment of need. This is it! This is the big moment!
From the other side of town, Matt gets a really bad nosebleed,
and he senses that something is wrong with Andrew. When they turn on the news, it shows
footage of Andrew’s room exploding. As Matt tries to reach him, he looks up to a crazy sight.
Rivals! This is the nemesis relationship. Also, the original plan was to have Andrew tear
his father’s limbs off like he did the spider earlier,
but it would’ve given the film a R rating. As Matt drives through the town to catch up with
Andrew, helicopters fall out of the sky and Andrew pulls Matt’s car up to him
on the needle in the town. As the two of them confront each other, the whole town
is abuzz with the fact that there are people with superpowers terrorizing the town.
Andrew is upset with Matt that he ended up saving his father.
I am a little bit too, honestly. As Matt tries to reason with Andrew more,
Andrew delves further into his own anger and madness.
I laughed so hard at that, but it was awesome! Between the plane and that bus, this movie is
setting itself in my memory as the toss random vehicles around until it hits someone film.
Andrew and Matt continue their fight which in turn ends up destroying a good chunk of the city. Once
Matt finally gets Andrew down, he tries to reason with the police, but Andrew isn’t having it.
At this point, there’s no reaching Andrew anymore. There couldn’t be a moment of redemption for him
considering the fact that he has continued to destroy even after being reasoned with.
He’s just tired. As he screams in pain,
the whole town square starts to crumble with him, but Matt stops him.
Even though you know it’s coming, you still really didn’t expect it to end
so suddenly. And I really wasn’t expecting a brass spear to be shot through him.
Going with scenes like this, this film was originally supposed to have a hard R rating,
but they were afraid that it would lose the audience if it did. I would’ve watched it
way sooner if I knew it had more clips like this! This is a shock factor for sure!
As the police try to approach the bodies, Matt shoots off into the sky and we clip
to him flying around the world. Later, Matt is seen backpacking through Asia just like they had
talked about doing with all three of them. As Matt makes one more recording as an emotional
goodbye to Andrew, he vows to get answers to what happened to them in that cave so long ago.
It’s hard to remember that those two were actually family this whole time. They lost
that a long time ago, and it would’ve been great if they could’ve found that again.
And with that, the credits roll. I’ve never been a fan of the found
footage style of film, but with this one, it just seemed to work really well. They
found a really cool way of keeping the camera still instead of shaky. Storywise,
it’s the classic story of kids getting powers, and they each go down their own moral road. It
definitely had it’s high points though. Definitely worth a watch if you’ve got access to it.
Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoyed the video! Don’t forget to
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comment on what you think I should watch next, and I’ll see you in the next video.