I wrote about going to a Chronicle event at Fox about 6 weeks ago at which they excited a geeky media audience, but didn’t show the movie. Why didn’t they show the movie? Red flag.

I finally got around to seeing the actual movie yesterday.

It’s imperfect, especially in the third act when it gets into the story trouble that all ubermensch movies find hard to avoid. But I also think the film deserves a lot more discussion and consideration than it’s gotten.

This is a real movie. Carping about found footage – which is not a genre, but just another way to tell a story that is no fad… it will be with film forever – is easy… or if you will, lazy. Chronicle is, in so many ways, what you would think of as an indie film. The effects themselves are never the attraction. They are just a tool to tell this story. And when the last 10 minutes get heavily into effects, the film suffers. When the ideas behind the effects are strong, the movie is strong. (I won’t spoil the end of the film, but anyone who has seen it will know that the last major effect before the coda is the kind of thing we have seen live on Shakespearean stages forever. And that is why it has impact… the drama of the moment, not the effect.)

The basic premise is similar to that of Project X. Three somewhat mismatched teens come together around a moment in their lives and the movie is about how they will mature, or not, as a result. But from early on, Chronicle announces more serious intentions. The central teen has a dying mother whose drug needs are beyond the family’s financial reach and an abusive father, beyond the usual geek insecurity situation. The charmer in the group is black and ambitiously political. The third teen is, as traditional, a little bland but well intended… and also the “cool cousin” to the troubled geek.

But it’s also the execution of the thing. These kids act like kids. They ogle girls just like the Project X boys… but even with “special powers,” they see the world through teen eyes. They don’t turn into middle-aged men looking for the Bada Bing Club. Even the Object Of Obvious Affection, in this film Ashley Hinshaw, fits better. For one thing, she has a thing for the middle guy, not the geek. Second, she looks like a pretty high school girl… beautifully imperfect… not a fashion model waiting to be discovered in the food court. And the “found footage,” until the third act, is pretty consistent and a reasonable part of the dramatic narrative.

And the power… it progresses in what feels like a somewhat realistic way. The lack of focus on coordinating how to use the power… feels realistically teenaged. The clumsiness feels realistic.

And yes, again, there are many flaws, especially in the third act. It’s just really hard to get past the 2nd act break with the stakes overwhelming the concept.

That said, I felt like I was watching the beginning of a future for indie film in Chronicle. At $12m, the budget is workable. And this is a real movie. It doesn’t feel like there was any skimping to fit the indie budget.

Obviously, the next film from these filmmakers is likely to be more expensive and to involve more expensive talent. But this is not a low-budget horror film that is marketed more smartly than it is made. It’s not mumblecore or charming improv. It’s not limited by its nature. It’s smart, tight, and viable as entertainment for a broad audience. It’s not just a trick. It’s not just a gimmick. It’s a good movie.

This is a big success for Fox, but personally, I think it could have been bigger. I don’t think the studio really understood how well received it would be by the mainstream critics, not just the geeks. And had they shown the whole film widely six weeks out, it could have gotten more positive buzz built up. As it is, people who didn’t decide to go to the movie theaters will find it on cable/satellite/streaming. It will be over $100m worldwide before the end of next weekend. But Cloverfield… one of those movies that gave movies like this a bad name… did over $170m ww. Monster and all. Chronicle deserves that size audience.