Chronicle

CHRONICLE (2012) - Jan. 31, 2012
A well made found-footage film about a group of three high schoolers who, after coming into contact with some sort of strange alien artifact, find themselves slowly developing superpowers.  The film provides an intriguingly down-to-earth take on the superhero genre (kinda like Invincible, I guess), and seems to provide a slightly more realistic scenario for what would happen if teens wound up with superpowers (costumes and crime-fighting are somewhat unlikely).  The movie starts out quite well, but then lags a bit in its midsection -- there are probably a few too many scenes of the teens getting into general shenanigans with their superpowers, and even at a very short 84 minutes, the film feels a bit padded out.  However, the film recovers nicely with a finale that is flat-out awesome.  It's easy enough to see why director Josh Trank is now a front-runner to direct a Fantastic Four reboot, despite his relative inexperience.  ***