Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 85% (Critics) / 86% (Audience)
Directed By: Josh Trank
Written By: Max Landis and Josh Trank
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly and Alex Russell
Studio: 20th Century Fox

Synopsis: Three high school students make an incredible discovery that gives them all telekinetic abilities. Their powers bring them closer together in the beginning but before long one of the friends gives in to his darker impulses and events careen out of control.

The Good:
The portrayal of the friendship between these three disparate characters (The Jock, The Dork, and The Weirdo) is really a high point for me. The bond that quickly forms for the three guys is a strong one and it makes the subsequent dissolution of that bond have a greater impact. The three actors did a really great job and they all were very believable as high school seniors.
I was also appreciative that most of the demonstrations of their use of powers fit right in line with how I think a bunch of teenage boys would behave…it was a mixture of natural inquisitiveness and rampant juvenility.
Some of the scenes showing the guys letting loose with their powers are visually arresting especially their flying through the clouds and the destructive final battle at the end.

The Bad:
I am about maxed out on the cinéma vérité gimmick in movies and I really don’t think CHRONICLE would have suffered an iota by being shot as a straight film. The one character with the obsessive need to record everything could have still kept his camera with him at all times but the audience didn’t have to be relegated to viewing things solely through that lens.

The Ugly:
The one character’s move to the dark side rang a little false for me. The movie set up nicely all the reasons why this character would spiral out of control and honestly the kid was looking like a prime candidate to go on a shooting rampage at school one day. However that was all before the three guys formed their friendship. The incident that’s used as the impetus for his initially turning to the dark side seemed a bit too trite for me especially considering how far he went with that first act of rebellion.
And the filmmakers made the wrong choice when picking which of the remaining two friends would be the one to play Obi Wan to the others Anakin. Instead of using the best, most likable character that was portrayed by the better and more charismatic actor they chose the least remarkable character/actor of the bunch.

Final Verdict: CHRONICLE is a fun movie with a little bit of pathos thrown in to give it more depth. the characters are fully formed and realistic, the actors have a very nice chemistry with one another, and the action scenes are top notch. B+