It is not very often that I will take the time to go the theater to watch a movie. I’m more inclined to wait for a feature film to be released on DVD first, then watch it in the comfort of my own home, all the while snuggled-up with the remote, a sack of grease-laced chips (potato or corn, makes no difference, and a Winnie-The-Pooh uniform (all shirt, no britches).

I turned my family down when they invited me to watch The Devil Within with them. I said No way, Jose when asked to accompany them to Paranormal Activity 3. I even downright balked when they attempted to trick me into viewing the last Twilight flick.

What it all boils down to is, I don’t watch just anything. To me, my time is extremely valuable. I create a seven-day-a-week, full-color comic strip series. I don’t have much that can be declared as spare time, so if I’m participating in an event, you can bet that it’s gonna be worthy.

This weekend, I discovered a movie that was well-worth my time and expense. This movie is Chronicle.

I’m not gonna spoil the movie for you at all. I just wanna give you the basic nitty-gritty about the flick, tell you what I thought of it, and let you make your own decision whether to go see it or not. Chronicle is written by Max Landis (son of director-supreme John Landis) and is directed by first-time director, Josh Trank.

The basic premise is simple. In fact, it’s so simple, that you wonder why no one has ever thought to do it before. The film is about three unlikely friends who discover this crazy hole-in-the-ground outside of a teen party. When I say that these friends are unlikely, I mean that without these special circumstances, these three guys probably wouldn’t have ever spoken to one another for any reason during their high-school matriculation.

One dude, Stephen (played by Michael B. Jordan of TV’s The Wire and the latest George Lucas film Red Tail), is a really cool black guy. He’s friendly, handsome, letters in sports, and aspires to be president of the country as well as his student class. And the strange part is, I can actually see him accomplishing all that.

Another guy, Matt (played by relative newcomer, Australian actor Alex Russell) is your inbetween dude. He’s not a nerd nor is he super cool. He’s the kinda guy you wouldn’t mind your kid hanging out with. He’s popular enough to get by, yet respectful enough to know where to draw the line when firm decisions need to be made. He’s the basic conscience of this crew.

The final homie who rounds out this trio is uber-loner Andrew (played by rising actor Dane DeHaan). Andrew has it bad, y’all. His dad is a disabled fireman with no prospective employment opportunities. Pops just wants to spend the day drinking hard liquor and crying about his lack of ability to provide, all the while placing the blame for the family’s misfortune soundly on the back of pitiful, lil’ ol’ Andrew as he beats the young boy like a drum with a consistency you can just about set your watch by.

Oh, and did I mention that Andrew‘s moms is dying while all of this is going on? Yeah, loner boy has his share of problems and grief that are totally unrelated to your basic high school dilemmas of “what am I gonna wear to the prom?”.

So, you’ve got these three unlikely friends discovering…something. We don’t know if it’s the remnants of a meteor, or if it’s an actual alien, or if it’s even extraterrestrial in nature at all. We learn right along with the stars of the film. They wake up to a new world, and we’re taken right along for the ride.

When you’ve got cool powers, who needs an explanation? It’s like that extra ten grand that mysteriously finds its way into your bank account. Are you really, really gonna hunt the world over trying to determine where that windfall came from, or are you gonna just enjoy it as it is, a fortunate blessing?

The stars of Chronicle do exactly that. They enjoy their newfound power. And what it makes it interesting is the fact that they all have the same power. It’s none of that Fantastic Four-type stuff where everyone gets a different ability and has to live with themselves and their ghastly, horrible new talents.

And being that they all have the same power makes it more logical that they’re gonna hang out with each other as much as they do. They basically cut the rest of the world off in order to concentrate on their secret. And with any identical “talent”, you know that someone is gonna be way better at it than the others. This makes for a great transformation in plot and story. If three people had the powers of say, Spider-Man at the exact same time, what would happen between them? Who would web-sling better?

And the film was realistic to me because no one’s first thought was to use their ability to fight crime. I know that’s a selfish sentiment, but c’mon, be truthful. If you found out that you could turn invisible, are you really gonna run out and stop a mugger here and there as first on your list of things to do today?

More than likely, you’re gonna have some fun using your power and that’s what the fellas in Chronicle did. They enjoyed themselves until the going got tougher than leather.

I really had a good time watching this movie. It’s the type of film that would make an excellent television show in my opinion. I could have watched this movie for four, heck…five more hours without growing weary of it.

If you’re the sort of movie-goer who enjoys fantasy, science fiction, high-school movies, buddy flicks, or even comeback dramas, then you may wanna take the time and money to go see this film. I’ll probably go watch it again this weekend.

And that’s truly saying a lot for me.