Chronicle (2012)
★★½ — Chronicle (2012)
Released in early 2012, Chronicle arrived at a curious moment for the superhero genre. Marvel's cinematic machine was well into its stride, and audiences had grown comfortable with polished, effects-heavy origin stories. What director Josh Trank and writer Max Landis offered instead was something leaner and more grounded: a found-footage take on the acquisition of power, set not in a lab or a battlefield but in the corridors and car parks of an ordinary American high school. The film's premise, three teenagers stumbling upon something underground and walking away fundamentally changed, owes a debt to the tradition of body-horror and coming-of-age science fiction that stretches back decades, though its execution is resolutely contemporary. For a film produced through Dune Entertainment, Davis Entertainment and Adam Schroeder Productions on what was reportedly a modest budget, it performed well commercially on release, and its influence on the found-footage and superhero crossover space has been reasonably lasting, if rarely matched.
Trank was making his feature debut here, and the film very much carries the energy of a director with something to prove. His approach to the material is confident where it counts: the decision to keep the camera diegetic (always held or operated by a character within the story) gives the early sequences a raw, almost documentary quality that sits well alongside its teenage milieu. The found-footage format had, by 2012, already been well worn by the horror genre, with films like Hardcore Henry later pushing the first-person conceit even further in action territory, but Trank's use of it here is more concerned with intimacy than immersion. The script roots the story in recognisable adolescent dynamics before it reaches for anything bigger, which is where much of its early appeal lies.
The three leads carry a good deal of the film's weight. Dane DeHaan, then relatively unknown, plays Andrew, the most isolated and troubled of the trio, with a quiet intensity that suits the role well. Alex Russell brings an easy, likeable quality to Matt, and Michael B. Jordan, already developing the kind of screen presence that would later define his career, plays Steve as the group's most socially assured member. Michael Kelly and Ashley Hinshaw round out the principal cast in supporting roles. The chemistry between the three young leads is convincing enough to make you invest in them as a group before the story begins pulling them apart. It is worth noting that Chronicle sits comfortably alongside other drama-inflected genre films of the period, and if you are interested in how science fiction can be used to examine human behaviour rather than simply spectacle, films like The Invisible Man and Mad Max: Fury Road offer useful points of comparison from very different eras of the genre.
Chronicle (2012) starts with a killer idea (three teens discover a mysterious object that gives them telekinetic powers) and cleverly frames the story through found footage, blending superhero origin with teenage realism. The early scenes are strong: awkward high school dynamics, viral fame from small-scale levitation stunts, and the thrill of discovering abilities no one else has. It feels fresh, grounded, even relatable, for a while. But as the powers grow, so do the film’s ambitions, and unfortunately, it starts to buckle under them. The third act veers into darker, more chaotic territory, trading psychological depth for spectacle and emotional nuance for destruction porn. The handheld camera style, which works at first, becomes exhausting over time, shaky, disorienting, and often obscuring the action you actually want to see. And while the main cast give solid performances (especially Jordan as the moral anchor), the script doesn’t dig deep enough into what power does to people beyond surface-level descent into ego and rage. It’s not bad, it’s well-shot, has moments of real tension, and the concept is still compelling years later, but it never fully delivers on its potential. The promise of a grounded, character-driven take on superpowers fizzles out in favour of a generic “hero vs. villain” showdown. Interesting premise, decent execution, but ultimately falls flat where it matters most. A missed opportunity to be more than just another origin story with shaky cam. Worth watching once, then forgotten.
For me, that frustration with the third act is the thing that lingers longest after the credits roll. The bones of something genuinely special are here, and the first half had me genuinely invested in where it was heading. When a film earns that kind of goodwill early on and then spends it quite so freely on noise and wreckage, it stings a bit more than a film that was never trying in the first place. If you want a drama from roughly this period that commits to its emotional premise without blinking, Mustang is well worth your time for a very different kind of story about young people under pressure. Chronicle is not a bad film by any stretch, and I would not talk anyone out of watching it once. I just wish it had trusted its quieter instincts a little longer before reaching for the fireworks.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2012 | Watched: 2025-10-07
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Chronicle (2012) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
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