CHRONICLE discussion - Page 3

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Originally Posted by stelios 

Regarding what the thing was, what happens next etc, Max Landis said he has it all planned. And from what he said a sequel is just about guaranteed and coming out pretty soon. Relatively speaking.

Torn about this. There are some major problems with doing another one, not the least of which is the fact that the main character is now dead, and he was the main in-story reason for everything being found-footage. Having Blogger Girl take up the slack in that department is...not a good idea.

That said, if the story focuses on a new character, even if Matt is still in it, that could be very effective. Someone mentioned Marvels upthread, and doing a series of "superhero movies viewed from ground level", with a perspective and characters who shift from film to film, would be an amazing idea. If it's just more of the same, though...no thanks.

If it could keep up the same quality, I think following Matt as the only superhero in the world, albeit there needs to be something for him to fight that's better than what happened in Hancock, and him trying to find out what the crystal was, could be interesting.

Could be.

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Originally Posted by The Prankster 

That rant actually bugged the piss out of me. I know he was being drunk and tongue-in-cheek, but I'm pretty sure he meant what he said about Superman being a bad character, and he's WRONG. So wrong. And don't fucking tell me that I'm lying to myself because I think otherwise. This seems to be at the root of the geek obsession with everything being dark and gritty and characters being damaged and twisted. I like stories like that too, but you need some actual goodness and heroism to balance it out.

Agreed. Also, for being a "comic fan," he makes a lot of factual errors in that video. The most glaring being that DC only waited one month to introduce the new Supermen, when in fact there was a year's worth of World Without A Superman stories.

Man, I wish I had a famous dad so I could pack my goofy You Tube videos with tons of celebrities.

The video in question.

Also, nice Misti Dawn cameo.

It should have been Zack Snyder at the end of the video instead of Howard.

I loved how blogger girl's role was essentially Katie Holmes' role in Begins, in that her job is to make our main character (or one of our main characters) feel like a dick for most of the running time until he comes, saves the day and forces her to change her mind on the idiot boy who's been hanging out with her. Sorry, that was sarcasm. Most of the time, I felt her use was just to give us someone we know who was also running a camera at all times.

Pretty sure there's some cut footage involving her.  She was that topless blonde in the trailer, right?  I don't recall that being in the movie.

Edit: I thought they'd have Andrew and her interact more.  He seemed to open up to her a little when they met during the barn rave.  Common interest of cameras and vlogging and all that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JacknifeJohnny 

 Totally surprised not to see more conversation about the sounds of the crystal being present in Tibet. 

Whoa, what?

I'd guess taking Andrew's statement about Tibetan monks being able to float and stuff literally.

Sequel? Easy. Matt meditates for a while, decides to go around saving people from tsunamis and earthquakes and whatnot, gets blogger girlfriend to document him (filling the Lois Lane role), meanwhile government uses that there crystal on some volunteer soldiers (as well as document their progress), one or two of said soldiers goes a bit nuts, and boom! Another super hero battle.

Then again, a lot of what made this movie interesting was Andrew's journey into the dark side. Part of me kind of wishes his death was left ambiguous...

Yeah, a part of me hoped for a Carriesque ending with Steve's grave, suggesting they can't be killed.

I really don't want a sequel but the fact that the hole was filled in, and a state trooper was telling them to vamoose suggests some black helicopter stuff going on.

Army super human goes nuts, Matt is all powerful after being in Tibet.  Shit blows up.

Landis is a comic book guy. Of course he has a sequel and full backstory ready. It's what we do when we dream up such stories. We've been too well conditioned to think otherwise. And if he has them ready, you can bet there will be a sequel.

And to elaborate a bit on my old-school Stan Lee comment earlier, if we say that Steve's death and Andrew's bugging out were Matt's uncle Ben moment, should we expect the next one to do a "Gwen Stacy?" 

Oh, the Akira stuff is definitely there.

I hope there is no sequel? Seems like it could only get worse. Everyone could just make new movies instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stelios 

Oh, the Akira stuff is definitely there.

I'll have to take everyon'e word for it because as I mentioned, I haven't seen it since I was a kid and I can't remember anything about it. I may have never finished it actually, as I do sort of recall being bored and unengaged (not a slam at all, I'm just recounting what I thought when I was a kid).

I actually liked Matt's arc quite a bit, as he is refreshingly unsaddled w/ obvious character flaws, and has an arc that plays out in a relatively subtle manner. Apparently some people need to see him push a rock all the way up a cliff in order to feel as if he'd actually accomplished something as a character. It need not be that big.

I love how well it taps into all the appeal of the common superpower fantasy, and all of its fun and troubling facets; I honestly think that no film before it has done as successful a job.

Just got back from this. I absolutely loved it. I haven't seen "Akira", so I can't compare with that, but I got a definitely "Carrie" vibe from it. That sequence of him performing at the talent show leading up to Steve coming in on him with the camera really parallels the end of "Carrie", and it ends with similar consequences.

I loved so much about this, but in particular I loved the scene after the jet knocks them out of the sky. Steve jumping around like a maniac is exactly how you would act in that scenario, and it was a funny, honest scene (Michael B. Jordan brought a great energy to that character).

I wasn't a huge fan of the found footage aspect, though I think they did as well as they could with it. As others have remarked, it didn't feel like they wanted to do it that way, so they came up with a bunch of ways they could shoot it "normally" through the found footage ascetic. It felt like the pitch that got it made was "found footage superhero movie", and then they had to stick with it even at the points where they would've rather had a normally shot film. Still, that's a small quibble, and on the whole I really loved it. Almost certainly one I'll be getting on DVD.

     Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Shaver 

Devin liked it. That's all I've heard about it so far.

I had a weird experience with this flick. I liked what I saw at first when the trailer hit and no one seemed to notice. Then the TV ads started kicking in and the marketing style seemed to make it a lot more bland than I first thought. It was only after I was hearing good things, like I first suspected, that I decided to give it a try. Even then, though, I thought it was merely okay with some interesting ideas.

Saw it again. Pretty sure I'm not fucking crazy and that I think we're meant to connect the echo of the bells or gongs or whatever in Tibet with the resonance coming off of the alien artifact. I kind of stopped watching In Treatment midway through the 2nd season, but apparently that show is where Dane DeHaan first started to get noticed, so if nothing else, we can credit it for being a showcase for talents like him and Mia Wasikowska.

     Quote:

Originally Posted by JacknifeJohnny 

Saw it again. Pretty sure I'm not fucking crazy and that I think we're meant to connect the echo of the bells or gongs or whatever in Tibet with the resonance coming off of the alien artifact.

Yeah, I noticed that when I watched it.

Just got back from this.  Can't say I loved it (not quite yet), but I thought it was really good.  Wish I saw it with a full audience.  I think that would've helped push the effect the film had.  

But man... if only DeHaan had been about this age when Lucas was casting Anakin.  This thought definitely crossed my friend's and my mind without us even discussing it beforehand.  When he's all scarred and burned, he even LOOKS like Mark Hamill in Empire.  Way more appealing a lead than Christensen could ever hope to be.

I actually really liked how the 'found footage' was handled.  Having Andrew's subconscious glide the camera around as a traditional DP would was kinda genius.  I wouldn't even consider it found footage at this point.  We're just seeing selective bits of footage from the POV of the cameras used in the story.  I equate it to the way the mockumentary approach is used in sitcoms these days.  It's referred to when necessary, but otherwise, it's just an aesthetic choice.  The format is new, but audiences have caught on fast enough that they know the vocabulary and can just run with it without getting TOO hung up on the logistics of it.  

Would the film have worked about as well without the format?  Of course.  It's a solid script.  There are instances in which it would've probably been better for the story if it had been shot more conventionally, of course, but I think the 'found footage' format gives the familiar story a lot of fresh energy and made the film something to take note of.

I loved Michael B. Jordan in this and was legitimately saddened when he had to be another black character to die.  I find the discussions about Matt to be interesting.  I also found him to be a bit of a blank because of the focus given to Andrew.  The blog-girl footage was an obvious attempt to flesh him out some more, but I didn't think it did enough to make his eventual role in the film dramatic.  I got what it was going for, but it didn't click enough.  But the points you guys have made in regards to that are great.  

I'd rather not have a sequel to this.  I don't need to know what the crystal was.  That's just not interesting to me.  Was very grateful that it ended with the finality that it did.  It was a sweet ending that could've hit harder had Matt been fleshed out more.  I think that's why I can't confidently say that I loved it yet. 

It's tricky, but it feels like the Steve and Matt character is one character that got split into two and ended up getting spread too thin.  The heartfelt conversations that Andrew had with Steve on the skyscrapers seem like something that should've been between Andrew and Matt to give more oomph to their final confrontation.  But then, who would have to die to make shit real?  As I said... tricky. Especially since I loved Michael B. Jordan (FNL YEEAAAHHH!!!).

I finally saw this on Tuesday afternoon. I also wish that I would have seen it with a bigger crowd. I dun goofed. I'll agree with the Star Wars and Superman II comments. I've only seen a few minutes of Akira (it was the stuff that seemed really odd out of contest, like the "transformation" stuff) so I can't compare the two but I did hear elsewhere from a big genre fan that they might as well forget about an American live-action Akira, as it wouldn't be as good as this. I also heard that it was written by Landis as a found footage movie.

Everyone has said much of what I've wanted to say but I'll mention that I am also surprised at how good this was, given what I said earlier in the thread about me first thinking that this would be teenybopper crap. This was SO much better than that. I enjoyed how this was a mature movie where they didn't try to explain what it was down in the hole that gave them those powers, and that the teenagers felt real rather than caricatures. Even the drunk asshole dad felt real as he wasn't always a dick and you could understand from his shitty life why he'd be an alcoholic. And I hate to say it, but I wasn't that different from the Andrew character in my high school days. Not the stuff with the parents, but how I was treated in high school, you know. That stuff did hit home so that was an element of why I did enjoy the movie so much.

As for it being found footage I mostly was fine with that even if I wouldn't have minded it being like District 9.

Anyway, I am glad I eventually did see it on the big screen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

But man... if only DeHaan had been about this age when Lucas was casting Anakin.  This thought definitely crossed my friend's and my mind without us even discussing it beforehand.  When he's all scarred and burned, he even LOOKS like Mark Hamill in Empire.  Way more appealing a lead than Christensen could ever hope to be.

Well, it's not too late for Lucas to digitally recast Anakin. After all, he did it to poor Sebastian Shaw.

...What am I saying, this is Lucas we're talking about, we're lucky he hasn't digitally recast Justin Bieber as Anakin.

Just caught this...excellent flick.  I really liked it.  The found footage thing wasn't necessary, but I'm sure they did it because of budget limitations (minimal camera setups=less time=less money). 

The last act with all the fighting was a stretch.  Inevitably the limitations of found footage become extremely apparent in the 3rd act because no main character should be holding a camera.

I don't know how they're going to do a sequel found footage without it being extremely forced (the entire saga captured on video is a bit much)...I don't see why they don't try and do a sequel traditionally...certainly they'd have a bit more money.  District 9 was made for $30 million, a little over half of Chronicle's budget.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambler 

 

I don't know how they're going to do a sequel found footage without it being extremely forced (the entire saga captured on video is a bit much)...I don't see why they don't try and do a sequel traditionally...certainly they'd have a bit more money.  District 9 was made for $30 million, a little over half of Chronicle's budget.

When people were still talking about doing a Cloverfield sequel*, I was always partial to doing it from a different point of view. This could be done like that. A documentary might be fun... no one ever said that mockumentaries had to be funny.

*People don't still talk about that... do they?

Very late to the party here, but I just saw this and wow... one of the best 'superhero' movies I've ever seen. A very pure distillation of the truest themes and ideas of the genre, presented without the bells and whistles and distractions of an existing ip. 

This strikes me as the Ur-origin movie. As Andrew began his descent I thought of Spidey and the choices he made, and I totally dig the real effort put into fully realizing the origin story of a super-villain.

Great stuff, and yeah, part of me wants a sequel, but the sensible part of me just wants them to let it lie. This just seems like a whole piece, well-conceived and well-ended, that said everything it needed to say and then bowed out.

Along with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, one of the best genre films I've seen in years, and easily kicks hell out of all but a few of the superhero movies made in the last decade or so. And these kids are how old?  

Saw this last night on the recommendation of someone who also told me what a good film Frozen was.  I had absolutely no previous knowledge prior to him bringing it up.  I went in extremely skeptical that I would get anything good when he mentioned found footage and I coupled that with his taste in films.

Much of what has been said I agree with in that this is not found footage and could have been a decent film without that conceit.  The script could have used a touch more tightening up and I think I missed some of the humanizing scenes/elements of the father because we were watching an Amazon download through the TV so the sound wasn't optimum.

My friend remarked, during some of the early flying camcorder scenes, if Dane DeHaan was purposefully cast because he resembles Mark Hamill.

I also was pulled completely out of the film for a moment during the mall parking lot BMW scene.  I honestly have no idea why they made that scene CGI when I am sure that it could have been practically achieved for so much cheaper and the money for that one shot used to shore up some of the other bits.

The flying scene though was complete wonderment despite me saying out loud, "When is the black guy going to get sucked into a jet engine?" almost as soon as it began.

The final Tibet scene was wonky, as I said earlier the script seems to have been a draft or two short of being ready to shoot, in that I couldn't tell if Matt flew off to some of the monasteries in the background or if he just left the camera there so "Andrew" could symbolically have arrived where he would know peace.