I didn’t see 2015’s Fantastic Four (otherwise known as ‘Fan4stic’) because I had a problem with Fox’s treatment of the Marvel properties they had licenses to (Daredevil and yes, the X-Men) and apparently I made the right move because it was panned popularly and critically (though the clusterfuck that was the making of the movie sounded more interesting by half).

And I still haven’t seen it though I have seen Chronicle, director Josh Trank’s first feature that very likely what motivated Twentieth Century Fox to choose him to direct Fan4stic and I have to say, I get it.

Chronicle revolves around three friends Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan). Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan) and Matt Garetty (Alex Russell) that happen upon an artifact that looks like it might have been salvaged from the set of Richard Donner’s Superman, which imbues the trio with superpowers.

Though the movie isn’t about that event, which comes and goes relatively quickly but the three young people’s response to receiving otherworldly powers.

Andrew is a social outcast, and Matt is his only friend (he also happens to be distantly related to him) though it’s Steve that breaks him out of his bubble and meet new people.

And it goes without saying that Andrew kills Steve during a temper tantrum, mainly because the script said that his character should die at the moment, as opposed to anything that actually makes sense.

Chronicle was somewhat dark, tonally speaking (once again, not because the story was so well-told more than ‘movie’) and a bit nihilistic, which brings me back to Fan4stic namely, if you chose Josh Trank to direct on the strength of this movie – which he wrote the story for as well, though Max Landis wrote the screenplay – why would you be shocked when his take on the material is somewhat dark and nihilistic?

Chronicle isn’t a great movie, though it’s certainly watchable and gives a greater understanding of why Fan4stic was such a fascinating failure.