Director Josh Trank and writer Max Landis wildly imagine what ordinary kids might do if they found they could levitate* things, crush* heavy objects, do crazy magic tricks and fly.

    The main characters are handsome loner* Andrew (Dane Dehaan), his cousin Matt Garetty (Alex Russell) and Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan), the class president and all-around cool guy the other two children look up to.

    With his new video camera, Andrew decides "to film everything from now on" and much of the action is seen from the p.o.v. (point of view) of Andrew's camera.

    The trio's lives are changed when they climb down a mysterious* hole in the ground, see a large glowing crystal* and find themselves with — powers! Their first trick is throwing a baseball with high accuracy* and making it stop in midair, but they shortly move on to pranks*; with the wave of a hand, they can move a woman's grocery cart around, push a car off the road and levitate. The only downside is a bloody nose, which is sometimes inconvenient* but a small price to pay.

    Early on, Matt suggests some rules: They shouldn't use their powers on living things, in public or when they're angry. Andrew soon breaks the rules, breaking a spider into its many body parts, putting on an acrobatic* display at the school talent show and taking revenge* on a bully.

    As for anger, Andrew can't obey that rule because he's angry all the time. His mother is dying, while dad shouts at him and beats him almost every time he walks into the room.

    Although the visual effects are great, the movie doesn't try to explore the possibilities superpowers hold for good and evil.

    Instead, the film becomes nonsense* in its final part, with Andrew behaving in all the worst possible ways despite his friends trying to stop him. The effects keep things interesting, but the intelligence leak* destroys the movie.

    (SD-Agencies)