Less than super: Teen angst, alien artifact don’t mix in ‘Chronicle’ - Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

Less than super: Teen angst, alien artifact don’t mix in ‘Chronicle’

What if three immature, hormone-addled teenage boys acquired a super power?

It’s a premise ripe with possibilities — all largely unexplored in the new thriller “Chronicle,” which runs along a relentlessly narrow, shallow, single-minded track.

It’s the first feature for both director Josh Trank and writer Max Landis (son of John), and it shows in the many potholes and rough edges.

They make a questionable call right off by using the self-reverential cinéma vérité shtick in which a character constantly films the events within the film — for no other reason than that this supposedly speaks to Digital Age youth who fervently believe every zit is worth broadcasting to the world.

Not only is this gimmick (the apparent source of this film’s title) becoming tired through overuse, but the artificial, superfluous buffer zone it creates between story and viewer is counterproductively annoying.

The three teens are Andrew (Dane DeHaan, who looks like a young Leo DiCaprio), his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and their pal Steve (Michael B. Jordan).

Andrew is an outcast/oddball with an abusive father (Michael Kelly) and a terminally ill mother (Bo Petersen). Matt is a popular, good-looking guy who likes to drop Schopenhauer and Jung quotes into casual conversation (totally believable, yo). Steve is an outgoing charmer who seems perfect for the political career he someday wants to launch.

One day, the three stumble on a deep hole in the woods. Without a second thought, they dive in to find a glowing, crystalline object with pulsing veins that is clearly Not Of This Planet (the first and last sighting or mention of this object for the rest of the movie).

The boys soon realize that they’ve acquired telekinesis — which they can even use on themselves to “fly.” Soon they’re cavorting in the clouds at 30,000 feet and almost getting smushed by passing jetliners. (Wearing only thin cotton hoodies? Really?)

The boys goof around with their new power for a while, but Andrew’s emotional issues start to deepen as his increasingly dire family situation mixes with his embarrassing social ineptitude in combustible (literally) fashion.

Truly dark psychodrama could have been spun out of this, but Trank and Landis can’t or won’t go there. They use Andrew’s mental deterioration solely to set up their big haymaker, an extended scene in which the boy finally snaps and lays waste to a large swath of downtown Seattle — a scene as visually impressive as it is emotionally unengaging.

Its sweet-zone teen target audience likely will find “Chronicle” to be a hoot. But except for the fleeting thrills of that thunderous climax, full-fledged adults are likely to view it as a large pile of meh.