It's Just Not Your Story

So I watched the movie Chronicle recently, and I loved it.  Oh.  So.  Much!

I…  I admit it.  I cried.  Thinking about it still makes me sad.

Okay, so I’m going to try not to spoil anything, but there might be times when I absolutely have to mention a scene from a movie.  If that happens, I’m going to alert you with this: [spoiler].  And then when it’s over, I’m going to go: [/spoiler] so skip ahead to that, ‘kay?

Generally, I love all superhero movies:  Sky High, Zoom, Push (one of my all-time favorites), Fantastic Four, Ironman, The Incredibles, Harry Potter (I prefer the books).  And well, by superhero, I actually just meant movies with powers in them.  I fantasize about it all the time.  Having powers, I mean.  It’d be great to have them, wouldn’t it?

But you know what they say: “Great power comes with great responsibility” or something like that.  Anyway, this movie got criticized for endorsing that message, which is apparently overused, because supposedly, all super power stories end up, in one way or another, teaching the hard lesson that powers aren’t all fun and glory.

Still, I personally liked the story.  But then again, I’m no movie critic, and I’m a very sentimental person.  (Wah, that’s not a good thing, I don’t think?  ‘^’)  I’m very easily pleased when it comes to stories, and I really liked this one.  Yes, it had that underlying theme of “don’t let your powers end up controlling you”-ish, but the story I liked.  Maybe the story again, though, is overused.  [spoiler] There are three main characters, but the main main character is a boy named Andrew, and he’s got a pretty harsh life, and so obviously, he is the one who ends up misusing his powers.  [/spoiler] But I think, for the simple (or maybe not so simple) reason that he aroused much of my sympathy, I was sucked into his story.

Now, if you don’t want any other spoilers, skip the following paragraph, because I want to talk a little about the scene that made me cry.

[spoiler] Andrew is actually a nice guy.  His cousin, Matt (from the beginning portrayed as Andrew’s only friend who also ends up with powers), also says so near the end of the movie.  He’s a very good guy, or he could have been, had he not been driven so deep into a corner.  And that’s why it was so sad.  This was my thought process:  He has an abusive, alcoholic father; his mother, whom he loves, dies, and he is accused by his father that it was his fault; his family is financially unstable, and his father lashes out at him for splurging on this one object that makes him feel secure: his video camera; high school is always Hell, and particularly to Andrew, it seems.  [spoiler spoiler!  (What’s coming next is such a monumental spoiler that I felt I had to give another warning.)]  So naturally, I couldn’t stop the tears when Matt had to spear Andrew clean through (Oh no, I’m feeling my heart sink while I type this out.  :( ) to stop him from his hurt rampage.  Andrew couldn’t trust anyone.  He lost trust in the two people he could call friends (Matt and Steve, who is actually one of the most popular boys at school but befriends Andrew and Matt after receiving the same power), and it was none of their faults…  It was just an unfortunate consequence as a result of difficulties Andrew faced in his life.  In his mind, he had no one.  Can you imagine that?  It’s probably worse than death.  Maybe I’m being dramatic again, but think about it.  Our world isn’t a friendly place.  It’s a cold, lonely world, and all the worse if you feel there is no one for you.  It is a heart-shattering concept.  Knowing that he carried this kind of incredible pain in his heart, I can’t blame Andrew for doing what he did (which was to go on an utterly destructive spree).  I also can’t blame Matt for having killed Andrew, because Matt truly believed Andrew was beyond hearing his pleas (that’s the way it seemed), and because his love for Andrew is so obvious.  Matt didn’t kill Andrew out of any kind of spite.  It was a mercy kill, mercy for the citizens, mercy and freedom for Andrew from a despicable, frosty world.  Before the movie was even over, I’d fallen in love with all of them — Andrew, Matt, and Steve — perhaps because they loved each other so much.  (See?  I’m getting sentimental, I know.)  It was a good story, a good ending (a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful ending…), but an incredibly unfortunate and sad one.  Of course I’d rather have seen them all survive.  [/spoiler spoiler (Regular spoiler ongoing.)]

My one complaint is…  that Casey girl is so annoying!  Oh, Matt, you could have done so much better…  :(  [/spoiler]

Okay…  I’m a little too sad to write any more.  (Truthfully, I forgot what else I was going to write…  Maybe because I got so sad.  :( )

Point is…  I loved this movie.  (My friends didn’t like it so much.  D:)  I would highly recommend it, but that’s just me.