Fall Out Boy: Folie a Deux

By Kim Keener

Fall Out Boy’s most recently released fifth album came out December 16, 2008, and is titled Folie a Deux, which means the sharing of delusional ideas by two people who are closely associated.  The album is great for any fans of Fall Out Boy, because in this album they have once again stayed true to who they are as artists with the same types of songs, beats, voices, messages, etc. Their album cover is not really attractive in particular at first sight, and is kind of weird actually like many of their other albums. One interesting characteristic of the album is that the names of the songs on the back of the CD are backwards so that in order to read them some listeners have been known to literally stand in front of a mirror and then take a picture of what it said in the mirror to read the song titles more clearly. Inconveniently, the CD also doesn’t have lyrics on the inside of the cover, which is the benefit of actually purchasing an album.  Instead it has artistic, colorful, random, and creative pictures of the band members with their names on the corresponding pages.  
      A couple of the most famous and most enjoyable would be “I Don’t Care” and “America’s Suitehearts” which entice listeners with their reliability factors and instrumentals.  The song entitled, “Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet” also gives a more dark aspect, which widens the appeal of the audience.  Furthermore, Fall Out Boy’s common habit of giving interesting titles has continued in this album.  However, many of the titles are hard to relate to by listeners and are most likely only understood by those who thought of them.  The original appeal of Fall Out Boy is still there with clever lyrics, a different accented voice, which contrasts to the sound of the band and the apparent skill of these musicians in their own right.   
      In the song, “What a Catch Donnie” Fall Out Boy’s lyrics toward the end of the song related back to one of their first big hits, “Sugar, We’re Going Down”.  In my opinion, this was really cool and had a unique factor in the way of making the audience remembers where they started from and where they were now in comparison. I probably would have found the album more enjoyable if they had taken such risks as this throughout their whole CD rather than what just seemed like a couple songs.  One of those being at the end of “20 Dollar Nose Bleed”, it was spontaneous and unexpected the way that the song suddenly goes darker and creepier as the sounding like the voice of a person talking through a radio.  Junior Meagan McCall whose a huge fan of Fall Out Boy critiqued the album as being, “Pretty amazingly creative but did not compare to some of their better songs such as “Dance, Dance” “Where is Your Boy Tonight”, “Sugar We’re Going Down”, and “A Little Less Sixteen Sixteen Candles”.   

                                    Personally, I think that the album’s faster songs were much better than their slower ones overall.  As much as I like Fall Out Boy, I almost feel as though I am growing a little tired of them as artists.  True that they are very talented and enjoyable to listen to, but part of being a musician is staying relevant to the public and trying something new with their music that draws in the audience to make them feel a personal connection to the music.  A little while ago they did a cover of an older song Beat It by Michael Jackson and Roxanne by the Police, I thought that was a good risk that they made as an artist and they should take risks such as that more often.  Hopefully in their next album, Fall Out Boy will take more risks as artists, which will pay, off well for them in the future and for their fans.   
 

X-Men Origins

By Taylor Kagy

The latest superhero film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released worldwide on May 1, 2009. The movie is the prequel to the X-men trilogy and based off of the Marvel comics fictional character, Wolverine. X-Men Origins: Wolverine stars Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and is directed by Gavin Hood. The film focuses on the violent past of mutant and his time with Team X, before Wolverine's skeleton was bonded with the indestructible metal adamantium. The film was worth seeing and Gavin Hood did an awesome job telling and showing the story of Wolverine before his ‘official’ debut with the X-Men team.
            In the beginning of the movie, a young James Howlett sees his fathers murdered, and the trauma of this event sets off James’s mutation, which includes bone claws which retract from his James’s hands. Having discovered this mutation, James kills his father’s murderer. After fleeing, Logan is later offered membership to a team of mutants called Team X, but shortly after James leaves the team due to the groups ‘questionable actions’. Six years later, James, who is now known as Logan, lives in Canada with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox. Logan is contacted and is warned someone is killing members of Team X. After this warning, Kayla is murdered and Logan searches for a way to defeat and avenge his girlfriend’s death. Logan is offered a way to beat the killer, who is in fact his brother Victor and he undergoes an operation to reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, an indestructible metal. Before having the procedure done, Logan asks to have new dog tags inscribed with the name ‘Wolverine’. Logan overhears that the doctors performing the bonding are in fact simply experimenting on Wolverine, and will shortly erase his memory. Furious, Wolverine escapes, and the government sends one of his former team members to track him down.
            This movie was actually pretty good and the filming was absolutely beautiful and crystal clear. Although the movie was only semi-enthusiastic, Hugh Jackman’s performance was one worth seeing. The action was eye-popping and in your face, and therefore anyone looking for a great action film to see need look no farther than X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Although the movie didn’t impress most of the comic junkies who had followed their beloved character in the comics, it impressed most of the others who had seen the other three X-Men movies and not read the comics. This film is recommended for anyone able to deal with semi gory and adult situations and who loves action. If you fit in that category, stop by your local theatre and take friends to go see this action filled 2009 blockbuster.

 

Star Trek: Where no one has gone before

By Jeff Liu

Calling all Trekkies, and even non-Star Trek Fans! The newest movie of the classic science fiction franchise brings a new perspective to the series featuring a new cast that portrays the old favorites of Starfleet Academy. Those who have never been a Star Trek fan will be able to understand what is going on, as the movie explains itself as it progresses. Due to a somewhat confusing plot twist involving traveling through time and the space-time continuum nonsense, the new Star Trek is set in an alternate reality from the original series, but this is clearly explained in the movie.
            The story follows the pasts of Kirk and Spock before their adventures from the original series. The film opens with a quiet space scene, as the USS Kelvin is flying contently through space with Captain George Kirk in command. This peace ends suddenly when a huge ship, headed by Captain Nero (Eric Bana), warps and attacks the USS Kelvin. Captain George Kirk evacuates all the crew, including his wife who is in labor during the attack, and defends the fleeing escape vessels.
            Years later, James T. Kirk is living a monotonous life on Earth, until he meets Captain Christopher Pike, who persuades him to join Starfleet. On another distant planet called Vulcan, Spock suffers prejudice from his peers because he is half-human, which is on that planet is cause for great bias, which compels him to join Starfleet, where he ascends the ranks and becomes a Commander. At first, Kirk and Spock are at odds with each other; Spock’s logical approach to missions perfectly foils Kirk’s instinctual tactics, yet they must dismiss this adversity when they receive a distress call from Spock’s home world and fly the USS Enterprise to rescue the planet.
            Though Chris Pine may not have the audacity of William Shatner, he brought his own ideal charisma to portray James T. Kirk. The pointy-eared Spock is portrayed by Zachary Quinto, but with the special plot twist, there is also another, older Spock, who is acted by Leonard Nimoy, the original Vulcanan. Other familiar crew members, such as Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Uhura (Zoë Saldana), and Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) are also present onboard the Enterprise and become part of the rescue mission to save Vulcan from Captain Nero’s wrath.
            The reboot of the Star Trek franchise is definitely a must for all Trekkies out there. Though probably most of these fans have seen it already, it is a fantastic movie for all audiences. Bursting with brilliant explosions and wondrous space scenery, it is a film that will even entice non-Star Trek fans to become immersed in the sci-fi marvel through time and space. Hurry and catch it at a local theatre. With a Vulcan salute, “live long and prosper!”