I saw Chronicle only once before when it was released back in 2012, and I thoroughly enjoyed it; so I picked it up out of the $4 bin at Best Buy on Black Friday.

This is the so called “Lost Footage Directors Cut” version of the film. Adding about 5 minutes to the strangely short run time of 84 minutes, the version did not add anything noticeable to the film. Nonetheless it is still a very entertaining movie.

When we are bombarded year after year with sequels to all of the Marvel movies, from Iron Man, to Thor, and Spiderman, it is nice to have something completely original, filmed also in a way that no other “super hero” movie has been before. But this is no “hero” movie.

The movie follows three high school seniors; the popular jock, Steve, played by Michael B. Johnson; the loner, Andrew, played by Dane DeHaan; and his philosophy spewing cousin, Matt, played by Alex Russell. One night whilst at a party, they discover a bizarre underground rock formation that gives them all superpowers. So what would a high school student do with superpowers? Screw around with them of course.

So, that’s what we get. About 40 minutes of the movie, meaning half of it, is the kids screwing around with their powers, exercising them and finding new ways to use them. The three become inseparable. While we don’t get a whole lot of back story on Steve, and Matt, we learn that things are not so good back at his household. His father is an abusive alcoholic ex-firefighter who consistently beats up Andrew while his mother is sick and dying.

The movie is fun and entertaining, but you cannot go in expecting something serious or clear. For most of the movie, we are laughing and seeing these kids find new ways to mess with people using their powers, but then it takes a weird turn, after a drunken incident at the party, and we get the fall of one of the kids into an almost villain like status. By the way, why do most villains have to immediately drop their voices?

The “found footage” style works well, but there are times where it gets annoying with some of the dialogue that basically was written so we can consistently see everything happening on screen.

The fight scenes and superpowers are also surprisingly really cool. Seeing Seattle getting destroyed is rather nice compared to seeing New York destroyed yet again.

So if you want a quick and entertaining superhero movie that isn’t Marvel or DC, then check this one out, just don’t go in expecting sophisticated filmmaking or a believable script.