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Review: Teens & Superpowers Are A Volatile Mix In Refreshing & Clever 'Chronicle' | The Playlist
What keeps "Chronicle" compelling is not the quickly wearing novelty of verité-style narrative, but a story in which the stakes aren't on some far-fetched villain who has a plan to destroy the world, but are based on character-driven issues. It's not about a hero who is running out of time to save humanity, but a human who is running out of options. And while we're making it sound deeper than it is (and the movie cheekily tosses around some philosophical mumbo jumbo), it's just the right amount detail to make these characters worth caring about, and their adventure meaningfully engaging.
Jane Goldman Adapting Eisner Award-Winning Comic 'Nonplayer' For Warner Bros. | The Playlist
Haven't read the comic myself (waiting for the first trade), but I hear it's great.Beloved and beautiful geek scribe Jane Goldman has her hands full. In addition to penning this weekend's gothic Hammer horror story "The Woman In Black," she's lined up a number of big projects. And while there's a chance one of them may or may not be involved in the forthcoming "X-Men: First Class" sequel, she may have bigger fish to fry.
During a recent interview with The Playlist for "The Woman In Black," Goldman responded to an X-franchise query with a coy, "That's not certain yet. But I'd like to, and Matthew [Vaughn] would like me to." But she expressed reservations about her availability, given her stacked dance card. "I'm working on a sci-fi project for Warners [Bros.]," she told us. "It's called 'Nonplayer,' an adaptation of a really wonderful comic that just won the Eisner for [Promising] Newcomer." "Nonplayer," if you recall, is an Image Comic that was recently picked up by the WB for David Heyman ("Harry Potter") and Roy Lee ("The Departed") to produce. The story follows a young woman who escapes from her drab life into an online fantasy world. "It’s futuristic, it’s incredible," Goldman enthuses about the story, which is set in a distant future. "Science fiction is not a genre I’m used to [writing], but it’s my favorite."
Kevin Smith Turned Down BEFORE WATCHMEN | Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors
“Talked to Jim [Lee] and Dan [DiDio] about it two years ago. Only passed because I’m not Alan Moore, sadly. If I was Alan Moore, I’d be all over it. As Kevin Smith, I’d likely just make Bubastis “big pussy” jokes and have Rorschach wet himself. Hurm.”
Review: Smart and angry Chronicle pushes superhero genre past the breaking point - HitFix.com
But in the end, it all comes down to Dane DeHaan and Alex Russell, and the film works because they both absolutely inhabit their characters. They've been pushed together for years because of their family ties, but finally, their powers teach them to be real friends, to really see each other. Russell goes from being this pretentious philosophy-spouting jackass at the start of the film to a looser, more open guy, finally comfortable in his own skin. For a while, it looks like DeHaan's Andrew makes the same sort of evolutionary jump. But his is curdled in progress, and Andrew becomes the worst of what these boys are capable of, all power and no boundaries. By the time cousin and cousin are fighting their way through a downtown cityscape, the truly spectacular effects work (led by Rhythm & Hues, evidently) takes a backseat to the emotionally ugly nature of what we're seeing.
A stylistic success loaded with great performances from a young cast, "Chronicle" is more than just good mindless genre fun. It does its best to leave a mark, and it plays rough. It is a very good film, and a real pleasure during what so often used to be a fallow period in the theater. See "Chronicle" on the biggest screen you can, and prepare to have brain, heart, and senses engaged fully by a great example of what happens when you bend a genre till it breaks, resulting in something that we really haven't seen before.
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