The Racked Focus Review: Chronicle (2012)

This past week, I was perusing Twitter when the account for The Racked Focus put up a link to Maxwell Haddad’s review of Chronicle, hosted on their site.  I thought to myself, “Why look for a review to review, when they are making it so easy for me to find a review to review?”  So I decided that I would review this review of Chronicle.  That is exactly what I’m going to do.

The review for the Josh Trank directed superhero flick went up on The Racked Focus on February 19, 2012.  That’s over a year ago.  The Racked Focus has been putting out good content for over a year!  As I already said, Max reviewed this one and what a review it is.

I’m the kind of person who loves a good introduction.  This is because I’m used to having breezed through any essays that I needed to write in high school.  The introduction is the most important part of an essay because it hooks the reader in.  It’s the most important part of anything, since you always need to hook the reader to keep them interested in the material.  A review is no different, especially since it is basically an essay about the quality of a specific film.  In his review of Chronicle, Maxwell Haddad puts forth a great introduction about the abundance of superhero movies, and how only a select few movies have transcended the genre to truly analyze how having super powers would affect a person living in our reality.  This is very effective, as the reader gets brought into the review with insight and thoughtfulness that can stir up the intellectual side of the reader.  It is a job well done.

The remainder of the review is devoted to analyzing how Chronicle both fits within the superhero genre while giving analysis of how the superhero genre could work in a realistic environment.  There is a seamless flow between the various points that Maxwell lays out for the reader to consider.  A great argument is crafted for how well Max Landis (the writer of Chronicle) was able to realistically portray the characters and their struggles, and how these aspects were able to fit within the normal superhero construction of the genre.  Light is also given to the performances of the characters by actors Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, and Michael B. Jordan.  Not only were the names given, but they were seamlessly integrated into the overall message of the review.  There was a reason for giving the names, rather than simply giving the names.  This is something Maxwell Haddad excels at, and it cannot be reiterated enough times.

Speaking of Maxwell’s previous reviews that I have written about, there is one thing that I noticed and quite liked.  There is a tendency to only have one picture at the top of the review.  The review of Chronicle is a perfect example of why I like that tendency, due to the fact that there is a second picture in the review.  While reading this review, I stumbled upon a picture between the third and fourth paragraphs.  It felt very odd.  Not only is it a distracting sight, but the picture is oddly sized in comparison to the rest of the page.  The size is not my real problem, however.  The distraction of the picture is.  While reading a review (not just the Chronicle one, but any review), my mind locks into a certain current.  The picture breaks the current and pulls me out of my own thoughts and into a different train of thought.  It’s jarring.  But it’s not the simple fact that the picture is there.  Sometimes, a picture can be used to great effect.  Maxwell Haddad’s use of photography within his Celebrating the Artist section on The Racked Focus is a good example of that.  In the case of the Chronicle review, this picture that has been placed in the review only has the relevance of being a still from the film.  There is no relevancy to the picture being there, other than to show a still of the film.  It is not relevant to the topic that was being discussed, albeit one-sidedly, at the time.  The picture is out of place without reasoning for its being there.

This is my only gripe about the review.  The rest of it is a wonderful read that brings insight to the topic of superhero movies in modern cinema, while only exploring one specific example.  I always enjoy a well written, thoughtful piece about movies being more than simple entertainment.  It’s one of the joys of being a movie watcher.  We watch and we learn, from both ourselves and others.  Maxwell Haddad has got me thinking through his review of Chronicle, and I hope he can spark something in your think-machine as well.

Maxwell Haddad’s review of Chronicle receives 4 hand-held cameras out of 5.

Edit:  This is pertaining to the paragraph about the picture in the review.  Since the review went up (which, right now, was only a few minutes ago), Maxwell read this review of his review and removed the picture.  It was a residual from the old days of the site when they were dipping their toes in the water and finding the right way to make reviews for them.  I will not be removing that paragraph because I actually quite like this review.  It's one of my favourites that I've written, and leagues above my last one.  But that's just me being self-appreciative.  I'm sure that most of you don't even care.  I just wanted to clear up any confusion in case you go to the review and don't see the picture that I described.  It's no longer there.  Thanks for reading this edit, and have a nice day.