MovieChat Forums > Chronicle (2012) Discussion > the "I'm an apex predator" scene was so ...

the "I'm an apex predator" scene was so cringey


It felt like a really forced attempt at trying to create a memorable villain monologue. Something akin to the Joker's "Why so serious?" moment from The Dark Knight or Daniel Plainview's "I drink your milkshake!" scene from There Will Be Blood. Something the writer really hoped would stick in people's heads and want to put on their T-shirt.

The difference with those scenes, is that those lines actually felt like an extension of the characters portrayed in their respective films. The Joker's "Why so serious?" monologue largely sums up the character's view of the world, that it's all one big joke that society puts a facade of order and morality over. The "I drink your milkshake!" scene from There Will Be Blood, displays the arrogance and condescension of Daniel Plainview's character, with him believing he's the smartest man in the world to the point where he needs to dumb down his language and make an analogy that even children can understand to communicate to an intellectual feeble like Eli.

In the case of Andrew in Chronicle, it feels very much like a forced attempt on Max Landis' part to create a memorable villain monologue as there's nothing that indicates throughout the film that this guy has any philosophical musings about what he did. He was never shown to be a particularly avid reader or heavy contemplater of any sort over the course of the film. There's honestly nothing building up to his character making this kind of speech beyond the writer thinking "Wouldn't this look cool on a T-shirt?"

Any thoughts on this?

Discuss...

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And that is why I found it believable. I was surprised at how much I liked this film and it is mostly because I find the characters believable. They are young and callow and Andrew is totally in character with that rather silly pronouncement. It doesn't make him seem less dangerous though, merely irrational and unlikely to be susceptible to reason.

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This.

It WAS a forced attempt. But it was totally in-character for him to do that because he's so fucking cringey.

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