Heroes Volume 5: Redemption, Season Premiere Sneak Peeks

IGN's got some awesome footage from the first episode from Volume 5. Check it out, and remember, Monday is the full 2 hour episode on NBC.

I Got It

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Heroes Volume 5 in One Week

Just a reminder, folks. Heroes Volume 5: Redemption hits next Monday. In just a week, we finally get to see if Volume 5 can redeem the once amazing show and bring it back to its former awesomeness. I've been getting pumped as we've been getting closer.

This could be so ridiculously good - new arch villain, carnival goodness, Tracy back for revenge, Sylar versus Matt Parkman, Claire's (probable) lesbian college sorority fling... and the possibility of an actual story line with meaningful dialog, worthwhile events that actually propel the story forward, and other cool things that actually make sense!!!! Whoo hoo!

Anyway, I don't actually have TV, just Internet, so I'm going to watch the season premiere as soon as it hits Hulu. Check back probably Tuesday evening for thoughts and reaction.

Remember: 2-hour season premiere Monday, NBC, 8/7c. Be there!

Also of note, my other favorite thing to watch on NBC, Southland, also returns next week. Season premiere of that one next Friday 9/8c. Watch that too!

Review - 9 The Movie

I must admit, the primary reason I wanted to see 9 was to see how good a movie could be that used Coheed and Cambria's "Welcome Home" for their trailer music. The trailers for the movie gave me some chills, as the use of Coheed's amazing music was top notch.

So, what then, of the movie?

First and foremost, I was sitting near somebody who smelled obnoxiously bad... atrocious really. So, some of my enjoyment of the movie was leached as I tried to find something better-smelling to put in front of my nose... my ticket stub, the inside of my shirt, my finger....

Anyway, stinky people gripes aside, the movie was quite a treat. The standout feature of the film was easily its visual appeal. The animation is superb; the attention to detail borders on perfectionism. The characters, visually, are fully realized and smoothly animated. In fact, most of the care I felt for the characters was driven by their animations, their facial expressions (so poignant for creatures made of potato sacks), and their body language. There is so much to absorb on the screen, it is sometimes a challenge to take it all in.

Also of note, the voice acting is great. Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, and company were spot on in almost every scene in the movie. Make no mistake, it's the animation that truly brings the characters to life, but the voice acting certainly doesn't hurt either.

The story, while a tad cliche, is interesting and exceptionally dark. I've heard many a tale of folks who saw that movie with their kids and ended up leaving because of how disturbing some of the scenes are. Yes, things die, yes there are some very dark visuals, but it is rated PG-13 after all.

The movie is certainly part cautionary tale - of the "artificial intelligence is bad" variety - and in that aspect, the story fails, as other movies (I, Robot; Eagle Eye) have done it previously and better. Yet, its achievement is its interesting little quirks and its entertainment value.

This is certainly not to say the movie is without fault, as it's got its fair share of them. First and foremost, the character development is utterly lacking in numerous areas. Take, for example, the character 2. Much of the story revolves around this character, indirectly, but we have so little chance to get to know him, it's hard to care how his large piece of the story ends up. Give me characters that are more fully realized, like 5, 7, 9, and 1, and I'm quite happy. The rest of the characters, no matter how central a role they play, never feel like anything more than husks, like potato sacks with eyes. The movie clocks in at a stumpy 79 minutes. I really would have enjoyed the movie more thoroughly had they added an extra 10 minutes even and devoted it to more fully fleshing out the characters.

Ordinarily, I'd come out of a movie like this a little upset that I'd wasted time and money watching it. There was something enchanting about 9, however, something that took what could have been a waste of time and turned it into a thoroughly enjoyable movie. By the end of the movie, even through the nauseating smell, I was thoroughly engrossed in the story and the characters, I cared about what happened and wanted the good guys to come out on top. For that alone it was well worth the time and money.

Score: 7.5/10.0

Final Fantasy 13 Music Live Performance

IGN's posted the title track for the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII. The live performance video is actually quite awesome, though the instruments are often overwhelmed by the singer's voice (which happens to be rather beautiful).

Check it out, and get a taste of what's to come musically from the next Final Fantasy.

More Final Fantasy XIII Info

Star Trek - Back in IMAX for a Limited Time

OK, folks. If you were one of the peeps that did not see Star Trek in full IMAX glory, Paramount Pictures is giving you another chance to do it. Starting this Friday, Star Trek will be re-released in 85 IMAX theaters across the country.

Do yourself a favor and GO SEE IT. I would love to go, but the IMAX screens here in Colorado are not participating (again... Star Trek was never in IMAX here).

You can find a full list of participating theaters here.

Review - Sci-Fi Crimes by Chevelle

At last, I breach into reviewing music! It's a little tough, seeing as I have only a little love for modern music that doesn't qualify as "classical." That makes writing regular reviews of music a little difficult!

Back in the day (I feel old for even thinking about writing that), I used to be into rock. Rock everything. Metallica, Korn, Black Sabbath, Alice in Chains, Green Day, Offspring, Pantera... I like classic rock like Boston, Eagles, Journey, and so on as well as the more (at the time) modern heavy rock stylings of bands like Disturbed, Tool, Coheed and Cambria, Chevelle, Three Days Grace, and such.Over the years, much of that had pretty much fallen off. I still enjoy listening to classic rock, can still sing along to most of the songs, but I don't find myself listening to it very often. I dumped my liking of most modern rock like so much refuse soon after I started working at Burger King. Even more fell off when Randy introduced me to European metal, which puts most rock that comes out of this country to absolute shame.

So, it's a pretty big deal when there's a rock outfit that comes out with a new CD and it's actually good. I haven't heard a new band that I have been any bit impressed with since I met Chris Townsend on MySpace, and he's from England anyway, and he sings what would most likely be classified as adult alternative rather than rock. There were a few holdouts from the BK years, and it's really these bands that keep me coming back to rock from time to time.

One of the most consistent of these bands is Chevelle. I fell in love with Chevelle when The Red off Wonder What's Next started seeing a lot of airtime on my local radio station (94.3 KILO, baby!!!). The song so thoroughly captured what I felt most of the time I was working there, it was truly remarkable. I've been a devoted fan ever since - I once saw them in concert twice in the span of a week. Once at a place in Denver called Cervantes where I got to meet the band (back when Joe was the bassist) and where my car was broken into at some point during the show. The second show was at the World Arena in the Springs where they were "co-headlining" with Korn. Co-headlining really meant everybody was there to see the decidedly inferior Korn. Colorado doesn't have the strongest Chevelle fan base....

Once every 2 years-ish, they come out with a new album, and there are few bits of news that can get me quite as pumped up than hearing "New Chevelle album out xx/xx!" I generally get more excited about hearing about a new Tool album, but that's only because it takes forever for them to release new stuff.

Anyway, Sci-Fi-Crimes. I downloaded the album on Friday (thanks to the spiffy early digital release for folks who pre-ordered) and have been listening to it regularly since then. The album is... different for them. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Chevelle is constantly evolving their sound. Wonder What's Next doesn't sound anything like Point #1, neither sound like This Type of Thinking, and so on. And I love that about them. Rather than pulling, say, an Offspring and just writing the same music over and over and attaching new lyrics, these guys are always pushing their sound.

But this was... way different.

Like I said, I love that they evolve constantly, but there are certain expectations that I have for any Chevelle album. Mostly, all their albums up until this point have 2 things in common. Polish, and a heavy sound.

With the exception of Point #1, every Chevelle album has come through with this extremely polished sound. With Sci-Fi Crimes, that polish has been stripped away, leaving this more weathered, rough sound. It took some getting used to, if only because it defied the expectation I had that it would be polished to a nice shine. This new, not-so-shiny Chevelle is actually really great once I got past the initial "not what I was expecting" shock. Make no mistake, it is still Chevelle, but it is obviously not the same thing that we've heard on their previous albums.

This album s also a lot less heavy than their previous outings, as certain iTunes and Amazon reviewers have decried. Lyrics aside, one of the things that attracted me to Chevelle was Pete Loeffler's voice. The man has one of the most amazing and versatile voice in rock history. It was that contrasted with the heavy, driving guitars and in-your-face beats that really set Chevelle apart from everything else that was coming out at the time and what has continued to set them apart from most of the crap that rolls out of studios to this day. With Sci-Fi Crimes' less hardcore approach to the music, it seemed some of that dynamic contrast was gone. But, I quickly discovered that that doesn't really matter. Loeffler still has an amazing voice, like I said before, versatile, and there are many new ways to appreciate how well it works with their new musical tones. Besides, lighter isn't necessarily a bad thing. This album feels more rhythmical than their previous outings, and that suits me just fine.

One other expectation I always have of Chevelle albums but neglected to mention earlier is deep lyrics. This album delivers in spades. Nothing new there, Pete Loeffler writes wonderful, deep, thought-provoking lyrics, and that's all there is to that.

So, after first listen, I was on the fence about the goodness of the album. However, after each additional listen, I kept finding more and more things that just worked on the album. So, here's the song-by-song.

Sleep Apnea - I think I must have missed this song on my first run-through, because the song caught my attention as soon as I started my second listen. Chevelle really as a knack for writing powerful and harmonious choruses for their songs, and that talent is on full display here.

Mexican Sun - The rising and falling guitars are awesome.

Shameful Metaphors - Yet again, the chorus is what really shines in this song. Top to bottom, though, it's one of my favorites on the album.

Jars - This was the first single released for the album, one that I wrote about on this very blog a couple of times. The song is just wonderful, and the video for it lives up to Chevelle's knack for creating very awesome music videos!

Fell Into Your Shoes - I like this song, a lot. The guitar work here is not like what I'm used to hearing from Chevelle, and the change is a welcome surprise.

Letter From a Thief - This was the first song I really started digging into the lyrics.

Highlands Apparition - This was the surprise sleeper song on the album. On my first listen, I was pretty ho-hum about this song, but the more I listened, the more I really, really started to like the song. One of the best on the album easily.

Roswell's Spell - This is a much slower song, and it very much reminds me of some songs off Point #1. I like the song a bunch, but if I had to pick a "least favorite" song on the album, this would be it.

Interlewd - One and a half minutes of some guitar stuff. Cool, but far too short. I wish, just once, that Chevelle would whip out a long instrumental piece. I know they've got the talent. Pete is a rocking guitar soloist (check out Point #1 if you have any doubts), Sam can kick some serious behind on the drums, and I'd love to hear Dean get a bass solo.

A New Momentum - What else can I say? I'm running out of adjectives! :) Another great one with a particularly interesting chorus.

This Circus - This song came as an instant download when I preordered the album. At first, I severely disliked it. Yet, as was the story of the album as a whole, I came to love it the more I listened. Now, it gives me chills and ranks as one of my most played songs on the whole disc.

All told, I couldn't be much happier with this album. It defied my expectations, and it succeeded brilliantly while doing so. It is very different from what they've put out before, but I continue to insist that in this case, different is a very good thing.

Score: 9.5/10.0

On an aside, my favorite Chevelle song has long been The Clincher off the This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In album. While I think that Sci-Fi Crimes is better on the whole than TTOT, The Clincher remains their best song.

Hostage: A Love Story

The newest Funny or Die video is up. It's called Hostage: A Love Story, and it stars Zachary Quinto of Heroes (and Star Trek!) fame. Check it out. It's hilarious!

HOSTAGE: A Love Story with Zachary Quinto from Zachary Quinto