RSS

Read by Adrian Sousa

Produced by Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo

Stories by Erica Fisher, Joel Balsam and Aisha Samu

I must say, when I see a sci-fi film I escape from anything and everything; I get excited that I have something new to discover. Alien films, in particular, are my favorite! When you have the freedom to create your own alien movie, you need to take risks and make people remember your aliens and their story. The audience doesn’t want to see a boring, dry movie; they are curious, they want action and, most importantly, they want to feel what it would be like to fight for your life during a battle with aliens, which brings us to Los Angeles. Writer Christopher Bertolini takes us straight into the action with a group of marines headed to a random police department where some civilians are hiding out. We have an enormous group of marines, which means lots of characters – naming them all would take up half of my critique! We are given all of their back-stories immediately to try and pull us in emotionally right off the bat. One of them has a pregnant wife, another has a dead brother, one of them is a virgin, etc. It feels forced, and, not to spoil anything, most of them don’t survive anyway! Towards the end of the film we have a stronger bond with the characters because there are fewer of them. Top dog, Aaron Eckhart, is the king of close ups in this one; he provides support with his twenty motivational speeches, his leadership, and his sheer badassness that comes from his years of experience in the Marines. I like Eckhart as an actor; he has played many good roles in his career (Thank You for Smoking) and this role was not bad at all. The dialogue was major cheese, but the delivery worked.

The story is pretty self-explanatory: aliens arrive on earth, for reasons I will not spoil, and we fight them off. What I loved the most about this film was the camera work; it’s fast paced and mostly filmed with a handy cam, but it’s not too much. You kind of feel like you are there with them, blowing up a lot of stuff up and shooting a lot of aliens. I won’t spoil too much of the plot because there are some events that I would like you to see for yourself. The effects are brilliant and the aliens are pretty neat, although you don’t really see them up close for very long, but why would you show your monsters right away when you can keep their appearance and abilities a secret for added suspense.

Director Jonathan Liebesman brings us into this chaotic battle with full force. The sound is loud and the explosions seal the deal. This film is action packed and really entertaining to watch. It looks good, it tugs at your heartstrings, and despite the cheesiness factor, I will see it again and I suggest you see it too. Give this sci-fi film a chance and you might even think that it’s out of this world.

3 out of 5 stars

-Andrea Boulet

Minutes before the clock struck midnight, candidates for next year’s Concordia Student Union chanted and screamed for their respective parties. The annual Concordia stampede, where candidates run through the two campuses plastering the walls with campaign posters, ran without a hitch. This is thanks mostly in part to a change in rules.

This year, Chief Election Officer Oliver Cohen announced that candidates would be released floor by floor for the first few levels of the Hall building. Then, they would have the chance to put up posters on several billboards-on-wheels that would be placed throughout the campus.

Candidates from both parties were happy with the change as they remarked about the civility of the ordeal. Still, candidate Gonzalo Nieto accused other candidates of throwing elbows. This is only the beginning of controversy in a campaign expected to be a dogfight.

Action Concordia, backed by the current CSU will compete against underdog Your Concordia.

The rumours that swirled last week about Morgan Pudwell and Lex Gill running against a CSU-backed team turned out to be true. Gill is looking to take hold of President while Pudwell is trying to become VP Advocacy and Outreach. Pudwell resigned from the current CSU on Mar 4 from her position as VP Sustainability & Promotions amongst great controversy. Her resignation letter attacked the CSU on several issues including a lack of accountability, and back-door dealings. The result was a heated CSU council meeting on Mar 9 where the current executive spoke to a room clearly mounting against them.

CSU President Heather Lucas and VP External & Projects Adrien Severyns were seen last night at the Hall building talking with members of Action Concordia. Their presence, along with the great number of former CSU executives suggests strong ties between this group and the last CSU.

Action candidate for President Khalil Haddad begs to differ. Haddad is the 2010 President of the Undergraduate Psychology Society. He said that he was upset with the way certain things were handled with the CSU this year. This includes finances and accountability. He also mentioned that he does not know CUSACorp President Amine Dabchy very well and refutes that he is the mastermind of his party.

One story already shooting up from this campaign is the amount of former Arts and Science Federation of Association executives running for the Action party. ASFA 2010 President Aaron Green, VP Loyola & Academic Affairs Terry Seminara and VP Communications Natasha Launi are all running. Launi and Seminara are in the hunt for the coveted executive positions. Left out of the fray is former ASFA VP Sustainability & External Affairs Chad Walcott who will be running against his former colleagues. Walcott said that he does not like how the current CSU handled things and that students need a change.

There remains a couple weeks before election time as the two parties have hinted at lengthy platforms and plenty of promises. Stay tuned to CJLO for all your election coverage. 

Photo by Joel Balsam.

Concordia Student Union executives are trying move past the resignation of Morgan Pudwell. After last week’s failed council meeting, a special council meeting will be held this Wednesday. However, the unchangeable agenda will involve no discussion of the resignation.

In a press conference Monday, the five remaining councillors addressed the issues brought up in Pudwell’s resignation letter. Pudwell accused the executive of financial mismanagement. To this, VP finance Ramy Khoriaty had to say, "There is a big difference between financial mismanagement and over-budget." He maintains that Pudwell over-spent her budget on promotional items in the fall. He says the only item she may not have expected was a portion of the cost of speaker Jay Ingram. 

President Heather Lucas also says she takes responsibility for not bringing the wishes of councillors and students to the board of governors as mandated. Despite her not speaking up at a recent board meeting,  VP Hassan Abdullahi says they have done everything they can. 

The meeting also addressed the Student centre, the lack of reports from the student representatives on the board and Women’s Week.