Chronicle (2012)

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Plot

Andrew Detmer is an outcast. He films everything and lacks basic social skills. He has no friends apart from his cousin Matt and is often picked on at school. To make matters worst, his mother is dying and his dad is an alcoholic who regularly beats him. Matt Garetty is Andrew's cousin. He's a rather normal teenager and is in a complicated relationship with this girl called Casey. Finally, Steve Montgomery is one of the most popular kids in school. He's outgoing and aspires to become a politician.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

Matt forces Andrew to go to a rave in the middle of the woods in hopes that he will socialize. Matt and Steve find a mysterious hole in the woods and call on Andrew to film whatever is in it. They discover some weird alien crystal that knocks all three of the teens out. They manage to make it out of the cave before it collapses and soon realizes that they have telekinetic powers. All three can now manipulate objects without touching them as well as use the powers to make a protective shield around their bodies, send off shockwaves and eventually fly. The power is explained to be like a muscle. The more the power is used, the stronger it gets. If too much effort is applied on the power, nose bleeds occur. Furthermore, all three teens seem to be connected mentally.

Andrew, Matt and Steve begin to use their powers to pull pranks on people until the day Andrew sends a car flying off the road, nearly killing the driver. They then establish ground rules, stating that the powers can't be used on living things. They then learn to fly which leads to Steve getting knocked out by a plane and Andrew saving him. A bound begins to grow between the teens as they plan to fly all the way to Tibet. All seems to be going well until Andrew is ridiculed during his first blow job, where he vomits on the girl giving him head. Things begin to get worst at home for Andrew which leads him to get angry and hide in the clouds. Steve tries to help Andrew out but in a fit of rage, Andrew kills Steve.

At the funeral (Steve is said to have died after having been struck by lightning), Matt begins to suspect that something is wrong with Andrew. Andrew begins to use his power to defend himself from his dad and get back at the bullies who bully him at school by pulling out their molars. Andrew begins to go crazy, convinced he's the "apex predator". His mother becomes more and more ill and his dad doesn't have the money to pay for her medication. With no other choice, Andrew dresses up as a fireman and kills the neighborhood drug dealers for their money. He then proceeds to rob a gas station but the robbery goes bad when the clerk takes out a shotgun and Andrew throws the shotgun into a gas tank, killing the owner of the gas station and horribly burning Andrew, who's arrested.

Andrew's father visits Andrew at the hospital, announcing that his mother is dead and that it is his fault. Andrew blows his hospital room up. Matt, who's hanging out with Casey, sees this on television and rushes to downtown Seattle with Casey to stop Andrew. Andrew flies up into the air and drops his dad who's saved by Matt. Matt and Casey try to escape by car but Andrew lifts their car and puts it on top of the Seattle Space Needle. Casey falls but is caught and taken to safety by Matt. Matt tries to convince Andrew to stop but it's no use as he is mad with power. The two fight through Seattle as the cops fire at them. Eventually, Andrew bests Matt and knocks him out as legions of SWAT teams surround the two. Andrew sends all the cops flying and starts to level all surrounding buildings. Realizing that his friend is lost, Matt wakes up and sends a trident from a nearby statue through Andrew's chest, killing him.

Matt flies off before the cops can arrest him and flies to Tibet where he drops off Andrew's camera in his memory.

Critical Reception

Chronicle received mostly positive reviews from critics. It has a 69 on Metacritic based on 31 reviews. This qualifies it for the color Green (the best color a movie can get). On RottenTomatoes it has an 85%. This qualifies it for a Fresh rating (the equivalent of a Thumb's Up).

Box Office Performance

Chronicle made about $24 million in its opening weekend in the US, which is good, especially considering its low production budget. The film held well and preformed impressively overseas too.