Chronicle vs Attack the block - Draft essay
Chronicle, a sci-fi
thriller teen film directed by Josh Tank in 2012 and Attack the block, a sci-fi
comedy teen film directed by Joe Cornish in 2011 are films about groups of
teenage boys that find a supernatural being; in Chronicle this is a suspected
glowing radiation and in Attack the block it is an alien invasion. Chronicle
and Attack the block both share a sense of the main characters having a
personality transformation when coming into contact with their supernatural
being, having to deal with this power. Both characters transform to the
opposite of how adults, authoritive figures and sometimes their peers perceive
them.
Andrew, a shy, timid
boy that gets bullied at school and abused by his father at home from Chronicle
comes into contact with the supernatural being later to be discussed to perhaps
be radiation with his cousin Matt and very recently discovered friend, Steve.
Steve asks Andrew to come and see what he and Matt had found and if he could
record it as the viewer watches the entire film through Andrew’s perspective.
When we see Andrew zoom closer to the radiation with his camera and as this
happens we see in change from the glow of a pure blue representing innocence to
a fiery red, this foreshadows the start and end of Andrew’s character (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4fZV9oaiII
– 2.19 onwards). The supernatural being gives Andrew, Matt and Steve the power
of telekinesis, they keep this a secret as they don’t want anyone to interfere
with what they have found because they subconsciously feel as though they need
to act appropriately to how everyone thinks of them and they don’t want to be
seen as trouble makers. However, the boys in Attack the Block act in the
complete opposite way.
Moses, Pest, Jerome, Dennis and Biggz are all boys
living on ‘The block’ where Attack the Block is set. They spend their time
being intimidating, pestering and mugging anyone who walks past that doesn’t
live on the same council estate targeting mainly the weak. We see an example of
this at the very beginning of the film where they animalisticly circle a young
nurse named Sam in the dark when she’s on her own. Moses throws her to the
ground and threatens her with a knife while the rest watched as he mugged her
of all her valuable possessions. Just after they manage to force her to hand
over her engagement ring, a bright light is seen in the distance and something
crashes into the car beside them, as Sam escapes Moses investigates and
discovers the alien and decides they need kill it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz30vlff2kQ(2.05-4.14)). After they do kill it, they don’t hide it like
Andrew, Matt and Steve as they’re expected to lie and intimidating so they
carry the alien around as a trophy. Their outfits also contribute to how they affect
other people too, being dressed in a neck chief covering half their faces and wearing
tracksuits is a stereotypical outfit to wear if they’re classed as being a
terrorising youth in London’s society, the boys accommodate this stereotype.
Conspiracy is also a theme in both Chronicle and
Attack the block, both groups of boys blame the government for their
supernatural finding’s. Chronicle mentions their supernatural finding to be a
hidden mistake of the government’s and that they’ve hidden dangerous radiation
underground in their town. Attack the block also mentions the government
putting the alien on the block to ‘get all the little black boys like they did
with the drugs and guns’. This is because in both America where Chronicle is
set and England where Attack the Block is set, children both feel hard done by,
by society and by the government due to how their home lives are. In Chronicle
we see Andrew being beaten by his father, bullied at school and his mother
dying because they can’t afford the treatment for her to get better, this all
contributes to the anger that Andrew has by the end of the film. In Attack the
block we see the boys be wrongly accused of criminal offenses and towards the
end see Moses living on his own at 15 years old with and uncle that drops in
now and again meaning Moses steals and intimidates to survive, also being let
down by the world.
Juxtaposition is used a lot throughout both films
both in a way of family. Chronicle juxtaposes Andrew and his cousin Matt
throughout the film, after they get their telekinesis they experiment using
lego bricks, we see Andrew build the a tower we see later in the film out of
the lego and Matt knocks it down (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oe2a0hxe1c
0.28 onwards),
we then see during Andrew’s downfall Andrew destroying the real tower and Matt
trying to save it(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SCzEhRZX4g). The comparison between two family members as
close in age and as different in similarities emphasises Andrew’s downfall.
Attack the block
also uses juxtaposition in Moses and Hi-Hatz, being leaders of their own ‘gang’s’
but part of the same family sense of the block, makes the comparison of them
being brothers. They are both looked up to and respected by their friends, the
most prominent scenes where Moses and Hi-Hatz are juxtaposed is where they each
leave the blooded elevator. As they each leave the elevator they have had and
will continue in a different motives, Hi-Hatz leaves after killing multiple
aliens and also letting them kill his friends and is planning on killing Moses,
his friends and even more aliens. Whereas, Moses leaves the elevator after
saving the block, blowing up his own flat, losing friends and wiping out the
aliens and is planning on just taking his expected punishment from the police
as he is usually punished for what he hasn’t done and no one believes him
anyway.
Both Andrew and Moses have a turning
point that makes the opinions of those around them change dramatically. Andrew’s
change is gradual, leading up from him thinking of himself as an ‘apex predator’
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQdZeOxzFdY)
but is fully carried out when he gains so much popularity through winning the
talent show and being friends with Steve and then is shortly all taken away
from him after embarrassing himself carrying out amorous activities with a girl
and vomiting on her. After losing everything he’s always wanted in such a short
amount of time pushes Andrew over the edge, with his new found power and belief
of himself being an apex predator and stronger than everyone else shows him
leading to his ultimate downfall previously foreshadowed by Matt ‘Your head is
getting huge, this is the beginning of your downfall I’m telling you. Hubris.’.
This is a gradual process by killing smaller insects slowly (www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sP4wixKzzY),
beating his father (www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OWwOfql2ZA),
stealing (www.youtube.com/watch?v=DILLiYa8j74)and
eventually destroying the city (www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m7z7HGZY9M);
this turning point means Andrew is now the complete opposite to how he began, now
being the villain instead of the victim.
The same process happens in Attack the
Block, except Moses uses his power and takes it into responsibility. As Sam
explains that the alien’s must be after him since he killed the queen of their
species, Moses realises that he needs to end all that he has started and takes
his power to save ‘the block’ and potentially the rest of the world. This takes
Moses’ starting character as a troubled youth, a villain almost and makes him a
hero. It also shows Moses going through his right of passage to becoming an
adult at the young age of 15, as we find out from Sam in this scene. He has had
to beg, borrow, steal, lie and cheat his way to survival and is now taking
responsibility of his actions to save what he feels is family and more,
especially seeing as he has already lost friends due to the damage he has
created and becomes an adult.
Both Chronicle and Attack the block
have extreme life changing ends. Chronicle leaves Matt having to take
everything into his own hands, Andrew is destroying the city, killing people
and trying to kill his own father and he becomes the main character taking the
right of passage from being a teenager still, going to parties and school living
a normal life to having to save the world just like Moses. Also like Moses, has
to end the life that is destroying everything around them, he has to kill
Andrew (a tragic ending, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6DJhD1K85k
– 1.15) in order for everyone to live and although this may be misjudged as no
one other than Andrew and himself know what is going on so he has to leave the
city with a quick escape so that the police and authorities don’t try to kill
him too or use to him for experiments. This therefore is a tragic ending either
way, Andrew a young boy at first innocent is consumed by power through his lack
of it his whole life and Matt an innocent teenage boy in the right of passage
to becoming an adult has had to kill his own cousin and flee due to his actions
to save himself. All of this had happened through the perception of them both
from society.
Attack the block has a heroic ending,
after having killed all the aliens and saving the block, having had his
criminal record and recent incident with Sam the police arrested Moses straight
away. He and Pest are sitting in the back of the police van waiting to be taken
to the station when they hear all of the block’s residents chanting Moses’ name
after Sam told the police what had happened, being a respected nurse they
believed her and the film ends on a close up shot of Moses’ face smiling for
the first time in the whole film. He finally feels believed in and that his
risking his life that night hadn’t been wasted, he feels like a hero and you
can tell his life had changed for the better. This is all through the belief of
him through adults and authoritive figures opinion of him. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMGW_gVNJgQ)
Through the perception of the boys in
both Chronicle and Attack the block and the right of passage that both Matt and
Moses have to endure makes them turn in to complete different characters than
what we see at the beginning of the films. We see Andrew killed through the
consumption of power and opinions of him from society and we see Moses’ life
change dramatically also through the perception of him from society. Both face
binary opposition and they have to overcome taking the home life difficulties
they have had to endure their entire lives in different ways, Andrew facing a
tragic ending of death, Moses’ restarting his life as an adult and Matt having
to start a new life on his own due to his cousins actions and constantly being
compared to him.
