YMMV / Chronicle

---

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: A non-fatal variant with Casey. Regardless of how little we really know about her, it's still pretty terrifying to see, from her camera's perspective no less, how she could have been killed if Matt hadn't gotten her out of her falling car in time.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Andrew. Was his final breakdown at the end a result of everything he had suffered, including getting set on fire, or did the morphine he was heavily doped up on exacerbate his already growing instability? Or both?
  • Richard, at the end. Was blaming Andrew for his wife's death just him being Too Dumb to Live, or did he want to die by that point? Granted, he's explicitly heard begging Andrew for mercy, which leans towards the former, but the latter could still be something he subconsciously wanted and didn't even know it. He is an alcoholic, after all.
• Awesome Music: "This Bright Flash" by M83 is exactly the kind of mood music you want to hear when the movie ends.
• Crossover Ship: There's a fair amount of Andrew/Carrie White fanart out there. One imagines they would have a lot to talk about.
• Cult Classic: It was a box office hit, but it seems on its way to becoming this thanks to the fanbase on Tumblr.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Andrew's downfall seems eerily prophetic of Josh Trank's Creator Breakdown during the development of Fantastic Four (2015). Things started off good for him with the success of Chronicle, but his on-set behavior (which was allegedly caused by Executive Meddling) costing him his role as director of a Star Wars spin-off film, and the film's overall reception and box office numbers have made the film a potential Creator Killer for him. Trank's behavior even apparently goes back to the production of this film itself, possibly similar to how constantly abusive Richard was from the beginning. And similar to Richard, Trank began having problems with alcohol.
  • A less harsh example would be Dane DeHaan's then-newfound fame after the ultimate failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which still recovered enough for him to keep starring in other films such as A Cure for Wellness and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, though both of them flopped at the box office, sending his career back to the pits.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Seeing Andrew suffer at the hands of his dad and hang out with his superpowered friends is especially funny since Dane DeHaan played Harry Osborn in the The Amazing Spider-Man 2. More hilarious is seeing him destroy a spider with his power. Less hilarious is when we see Andrew grow a taste for beating the crap out of his best friends and generally growing more insane by the day, partially thanks to his violent father.
  • In this film, Dane DeHaan's character rips the tooth out of a bully quickly and bloodily for pure revenge. Five years later, in A Cure for Wellness, he winds up on the receiving end of a Depraved Dentist in a scene that takes its time!
  • This would not be Michael B. Jordan's last encounter with the superhero genre. When Steve rescues the trucker, his wet, skintight blue shirt begins to resemble a Fantastic Four uniform.
  • Carrie was one of the main inspirations for the script. A year later and because of his performance in Chronicle, Alex Russell (Matt) starred in the remake of Carrie, only that time, instead of a hero, he plays the villain Billy Nolan.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Richard's Jerkass tendencies outweigh The Woobie part, however.
  • As the film goes on, Andrew. Although in his case, the 'Jerkass' part could be due to the Sanity Slippage he suffered caused by his father's abuse, the stress of his mother's illness, and of course the Hope Spot he lost.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Richard is far more despised than Andrew is, because he's an abusive dad and a Lower-Class Lout who blows all his family's money on alcohol while his wife is in serious need of life-saving healthcare, he bullies his son awfully, and any redeeming qualities that he displays over the movie are all subverted in short order, plus he was unwittingly a core factor in Andrew's Protagonist Journey to Villain through his abuse of Andrew and negligence of his wife. Whereas Andrew, despite ultimately hurting and endangering far more people than Richard in a deliberate fashion, is beloved by audiences for being a compelling, empathy-inducing, troubled Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds with a tragic Protagonist Journey to Villain and a tear-jerking end, on top of his awe- and terror-inspiring superpowers.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Richard crosses it when he blames a comatose Andrew for Andrew's mom's death. He even tries to punch Andrew as he lays in his hospital bed. And that's if you don't count his previous abuse of Andrew.
  • Andrew himself is a more complicated example. He could be said to have crossed it when he caused that car-crash that left the driver at best hospitalized and at worst dead, but he is so broken and emotionally damaged that it is hard to lose all sympathy for him.
• Narm: As noted by this youtuber Andrew's dad comes off as cartoonish with his abuse. The fact that he beats him at every turn makes him less of a character and more of a plot device
  • Also noted is the fact that Andrew's downfall seems to kick off with his embarrassment at the party. While an understandably awful experience, it's hard to believe that he would descend so quickly into villainy after that. Sure, his dad continues to abuse him, but the idea that he would suddenly shut Steve and Matt out feels forced and unearned.
• Nightmare Retardant: Andrew is pretty scary in the final act but he also looks a Halloween mummy reject. While the injuries and bandages are real, it's an unintentionally silly costume for the villain.
• The Scrappy: Casey is pretty disliked for being an obvious plot device (there needing to be another camera). Though every other character considered worse than her is practically meant to be a Hate Sink.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The Legos, Pringles, and cars thrown around by the boys are very obvious low-budget CGI.
  • The final shot of the movie has Matt standing in front of a snowy Tibetan temple—or, rather, a terrible greenscreen with an image that looks like a cross between a bad Photoshop job and a PS1 screenshot.
  • The final battle has some very obvious moments where the cars are flying around.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • What a lot of people think Chronicle is to a certain anime/manga about telekinetic teenagers, if it's not considered an outright case of Serial Numbers Filed Off.
    • Carrie comparisons are also pretty common.
  • YouTuber Yhara Zayd considers this as the best "boy version" of The Craft - something that The Covenant tried to be but failed.
  • Fans of the Jumper novel may also note a lot of similarities. Abusive parent with a superpowered kid, kid starts using their powers for personal gain (including acts of petty revenge and stealing money), things start going too far... One difference being which characters end up the hero and villain.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Considering that the movie was made on a $12,000,000 budget, the computer-generated effects are pretty impressive.
• The Woobie:
  • Matt by the end of the film. He's forced to kill Andrew once it's clear that he can't talk him down from his rampage and ends up on the run from the government after revealing his superpowers to the world.
  • Steve, a Broken Ace devastated by his parent's impending divorce who nevertheless tries to be friendly and supportive towards everyone he meets. His attempt to talk down an upset Andrew results in his death.

---