Movie · 2012 · Science Fiction, Drama, Thriller · 1h 24m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 5.2/10 (587.5K ratings)
What are you capable of?
Overview
Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to their developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.2/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Letterboxd: 3.53/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 69
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Josh Trank
Production
Dune Entertainment, Davis Entertainment, Adam Schroeder Productions, 20th Century Fox
Cast
Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly, Ashley Hinshaw, Bo Petersen, Anna Wood, Rudi Malcolm, Luke Tyler, Crystal-Donna Roberts, Adrian Collins, Grant Powell, Armand Aucamp, Nicole Bailey, Lynita Crofford, Royston Stoffels, Patrick John Walton, Lance Elliott, Nadine Suliaman, Pierre Malherbe
Curator Review
Verdict
A lean, inventive superhero-origin story that uses found-footage style to make teenage power fantasy feel immediate, funny, and increasingly tragic. It’s strongest as a character study of alienation and ego, with enough spectacle to satisfy even when some dialogue and effects show their age.
Best for
fans of darker superhero origins
viewers who like found-footage experimentation
coming-of-age stories with a fatalistic edge
audiences drawn to moral collapse and power corruption
people who enjoy tense, fast-moving genre films
Skip if
you dislike shaky-cam or mockumentary aesthetics
you want a polished, effects-heavy blockbuster
you prefer hopeful or uplifting superhero stories
you’re turned off by teen drama and abrasive characters
Overview
Chronicle takes a simple premise—what if three teens got superpowers—and makes it feel uncomfortably plausible. The found-footage approach gives the movie a scrappy energy that works especially well in the early scenes, where curiosity, boredom, and social awkwardness all feel lived-in rather than manufactured. It’s a smart blend of sci-fi, teen drama, and disaster movie instincts.
Worth noting
What gives the film its staying power is the way it treats power as an amplifier of existing damage. The movie is less interested in wish fulfillment than in resentment, loneliness, and the thrill of finally being able to push back. That makes it darker than the average origin story, and also more memorable, even if some of the dialogue is clunky and the ending leans a little too hard into spectacle.
Bottom line
Even with a few rough edges, it remains one of the more distinctive superhero-adjacent films of its era. The performances, especially the central turn, sell the emotional descent, and the movie’s small-scale approach helps the chaos feel personal. It’s a strong pick if you want genre filmmaking with a mean streak and a tragic aftertaste.
Top Letterboxd reviews
🦇🎃amanda🎃🦇 (4.5★) · 7753 likes
me and the boys in creative mode
Vinny Simms (3.5★) · 4978 likes
an incel, a philosopher, and a jock walk into a cave...
adambolt (3.5★) · 3662 likes
hey guys welcome to my epic vlog where i fucken murder everyone with my cool powers
2002 · Action, Science Fiction · 2h 1m · PG-13 · Curator 7.3/10 (3.3M ratings) · Where to watch: Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, fuboTV, Netflix Standard with Ads
A more optimistic power-fantasy counterpart that still centers on responsibility and identity.
2004 · Action, Adventure, Science Fiction · 2h 7m · PG-13 · Curator 8.2/10 (2.8M ratings) · Where to watch: Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, fuboTV, Netflix Standard with Ads
One of the best superhero films about the burden and cost of power, with strong emotional fallout.
2001 · Fantasy, Drama, Mystery · 1h 54m · R · Curator 8.7/10 (3.2M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
For its mix of teen isolation, eerie atmosphere, and a protagonist drifting toward catastrophe.
A more mainstream powers-and-consequences adventure, useful if the appeal is wish-fulfillment with a dark edge.
Topics
superhero origin, found footage, teen drama, psychological descent, dark sci-fi, thriller, coming-of-age, moral corruption, low-budget spectacle, 2010s