conor.

The film site I write for didn’t publish this review I wrote because, as it turns out, another one of the writers also reviewed it. I didn’t write this thing for nothing so here it is:

A found footage superhero movie sounds like an idea that was pitched in 2008, when everyone was marvelling (see what I did there?) over the marketing of Cloverfield and bedazzled by the superhero grandeur of The Dark Knight. It feels like a Hollywood executive’s great big cash grab, rather than the $15 million independent film we see here in 2012. In a way, this abrupt shift in the approach to superhero movies acts to help the film greatly, as our expectations are defied time and time again over the course of the relatively short 84 minute runtime.

Let’s first have a chat about found footage films. They’re never amazing, as far as I can surmise. I don’t mean the films aren’t good, I mean that the conceit of a found footage film is never perfectly consistent. In Cloverfield (a film I love more than most), why the hell didn’t they just drop the camera? Same for Blair Witch. Even in Chronicle, which does found footage better than most, there are a few general issues. The first is why Andrew, one of the three protagonists, starts filming things. This isn’t well extrapolated upon nor does it conceal a very big coincidence in that as soon as filming begins, they experience the event that leads to their powers. There is another scene near the end of the film in which there is absolutely no way a camera would have been in that angle or even present, which detracts from the film’s attempt to remain consistent. The film’s climactic conclusion, however, has one of the cleverest and most interesting approaches to found footage in that it utilises so many different cameras and perspectives.

Now let’s talk about superhero films. This is an origin story film that actually works. As a modern fable, the story is well told, engaging and gets closer than any film in recent memory in terms of what a teenager with special powers would actually do. There are no special suits or gadgets only telekinesis and teenage stupidity. Sticking to this allows the film a simple basis upon which to build the characters.

Character-wise, the film relies upon some well worn clichés of the high school experience. We have the popular kid, played by Michael B. Jordan, of Friday Night Lights fame, the introverted loner and the intermediary. We have wild parties, awkward moments, bullying, gossiping and all the rest. The fact that not too much time is put into these aspects is refreshing. They appear as passing asides and that allows the audience to focus on perhaps the bigger issue which is the idea of hubris and transformation.

Andrew, the one with the camera and who, in all the trailers, is shown as ‘dark and mysterious’ is an extremely well rendered character that allowed us to watch as he became a sociopath with superhuman powers. Perhaps I’m taking it too far but I saw the evolution of his powers as a means through which one could see a school shooter. The broken home, the powerful isolation, access to means of violence and then the total meltdown. Except rather than put it in a school, here we have the same psychology placed in the large context of society.

What made this film so easy to enjoy was the fact that all three of the main characters were compelling to watch onscreen and the story, although based off of superhero narratives and other familiar narratives, somehow seemed extremely fresh, with some fantastic plot points lifting it high above much of the other superhero fare on offer today.

I won’t say any more because, really, it’s probably best to not know much going into the film. It’s a bold film debut that changes the idea of what a superhero film can be and does it in a well rendered fashion.

4 stars.