Chronicle

Yes I saw Fantastic Four, the new one (Actually I have seen the 4 movies already, yes the 1994 made by Roger Corman too) but I’m not going to make a review of it, why? Because What can I say about it that has not been said yet, the movie is horrible and should never have been green lighted.

But with that in mind before watching Fantastic Four I watched “Chronicle” the movie that convinced people that Josh Trank could make a movie, so I think my review should be for this movie because is his “opera prima” that’s Latin for his best work (if you take it literally means first work, but we will stick to number one work)

So why Chronicle was so acclaimed and Fantastic Four so terrible? Did power go over his head? Did everything got out of hand because of the big budget? Or, and this is my point of view, he just plain suck and doing internet videos is his “non plus ultra” (Latin for “the best that can be achieved” Look at us using Latin twice already, I feel so smart and proper)

So without any more I give you the review of:

Chronicle

The movie starts as any found footage starts, someone setting a camera (So we start with the wrong foot) and the guy setting it have problems with his father (Seriously can this be more cliché?—Uh now we use French—) Well the movie moves along but if you pay a little attention you might see that there is no plot for the movie, is just like a bunch of internet videos all mashed up together. If you don’t believe me just make this little exercise, watch any scene of the movie and think “would I get the plot of the movie if this were the first scene?” The answer is always yes. The character of Michael B. Jordan is totally useless for the plot, the guy appears in the middle of the story then dies and it has no impact, also the character of the girlfriend is also irrelevant, just happens to be there.

So you might get what I’m trying to say, this movie is poorly written and the visual effects are fine for a youtube video made by some random guy with his friends but this was a studio film and the effects were made by people that earns their living by doing this. There is no character development in this series of videos (I refuse to call it a movie any more) even the gimmick of being found footage doesn’t work if you know a little of a camera, which is, the image and resolution changes from one device to another. When the camera gets destroyed and he gets a new one, it should have been a change on the image like in “The Wizard of Oz” or in “Oz the Great and Powerful” (God save us I’m referring to that movie as a good example) but no, is always the same image, same resolution, same frame rate, same filter, not even the format changes from fullscreen to widescreen to “tallscreen” (that’s when a person records with his/her phone in a vertical way) Who would know that and iPhone has the same picture quality than a TV station camera?

I'm almost sure that Sue Storm was added on post production and re-shoots

 

The point is that all the signs where there if you just look, but people watch it as they watch a viral video, so it got popular and then forgotten, but also shows all the problems Josh Trank have as a director and a person, because let’s see, Daddy issues, yes in Chronicle and in Fantastic Four, not knowing how to  handle a story, Chronicle has no story and Fantastic Four is horrible, not knowing how to work a female character or an actress Chronicle is totally irrelevant  and in Fantastic Four looks like he keep her out deliberately (is like this guy hates women or something). To me I think is a little better a director like Michael Bay (Man am I using Michael Bay as a good example, this guy is in trouble) that puts sexualizes women and put stock characters on the films because at least he us using female characters, and let’s face it lots of people uses stock characters and some have been applauded by it, cough True Detective cough! So it might not be the ideal to sexualize anyone but that is better than just set them aside and try to ignore the fact that the title demands you to put Sue Storm on the film.

As I said, sexualize Sue Storm is not ideal but also let's remember that some women actually like to cosplay lie this.

 So am I willing to watch another movie of this guy? Hell no, Do I hope he gets another job? If is as far from a film it can be is OK with me. That man deserves a restriction order from the film industry.