Kirsten Bell as Harley Quinn?

Of course, with the huge success that is The Dark Knight, questions surely be aroused on who is our favorite cape crusader's villain in the next sequel. A too much time talented fan has created his own rendition on who would be the next villain of the Dark Knight. In this picture, Kristen Bell portrayed as Harley Quinn. While I've always seen Kristen Bell as someone to adore rather than someone to hate, the dude did a pretty good job. Other than that, the dude also imagined Marion Cotillard as Catwoman. Head to his gallery page for more.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

I'm not really sure who's who or which is which in this case but apparently, some tug-of-war between Fox and Warner Bros regarding the "rights" for Watchmen has threatened the release of this film which scheduled for early next year. I'm not really into the news, but fans has threatened that should Watchmen really be pulled off of the release date, they would unanimously boycotted any films released from the Fox's vault.

Farewell to the Kings

I'm no saint nor angel, but I've always tried to be honest in everything I said and did (at least, for the last couple of years :D). Currently, I'm preparing to make a move from this virtual leased house to a permanent home I shall called "my own"

Funny Games (U.S.) (2007)

Mirror was actually up for a screening this week, but seeing that I'm not into its original work from which it has been adapted (Into the Mirror, I had wrote something about it in 2003 - whoa! 5 years ago! - and not really liking it), and I had personally thought that Alexandre Aja is already a Hollywood sell-out after his initial horror flick that had launched his career so I had decided to stay at home and watched Funny Games instead and judging by the initial response to "Mirror", I think I had made a pretty good decision.

It could be said that Funny Games - although that it's actually a US remake from an Austrian film also directed by Michael Haneke - has fallen from the radar of many movie-goers out there. I had to focus on the cover (a picture of beautiful Naomi Watts - she had a nose that could melt my heart, seriously - shredded in what appears to be tears and agony, and another, a picture of a golf club covered in dried blood) before I started to really wanted it. Ironically, the title itself was what probably rendered it into an ignorable candidate of a film. All in all, I had wanted to see this film since earlier this year, but the lackluster in news related to it kept it dropped out of my short term memory. I was pretty much forgot about the film until I saw its DVD in one of the store in Singapore last week. And here goes my real review.

First, a disclaimer. Reviewing Funny Games without spoiling anything is hard (especially, considering what happened in the film at the 100th minute. You might want to circle that because I really think that nobody could've seen that coming. My jaw is like dropping all the way to the floor, ALL THE WAY. I was stunned that for minutes I still tried to contemplate the scene). But I think I did a pretty good job of disclosing the content of the film in this review.

Funny Games remind me a lot to A Clockwork Orange but grimmer, messier and far worse (not in a sense of quality which I think it's rather superior). It's creepy, it's haunting, it's disturbing and it manages to do all those things without any sound effect imposed to add a shocking value. Horror and especially thriller fans should be able to appreciate this film and it didn't do a justice that this film is little known.

The film begins pretty harmless, as we follow through a bourgeois family of three, Ann (Naomi Watts), George (Tim Roth), and their son on a journey to their vacation home and as all vacation homes do, houses were scarce and far between, remote and no landline phones. On their way, they met with their next-house neighbor. They said 'hi' but comments were made about the neighbor unusual quiet behavior and about a couple strangers in their front yard. They were soon acquainted with these strangers. Peter and Paul or Tom and Jerry or Beavis and Butt-Head as they identified themselves. By mere looks we knew that these couples were up to no good and they lived up to their expectation as later, they held the family hostage and forced the family into some sort of twisted "games"

I cannot really went further than that, else I would ruin your experience. All you need to know is that this film uses minimal setting, minimal sound, even minimal dialog but in this case, the less is actually more. The camera sometimes linger on an extended period of time on a single spot and on particularly one scene it is hard NOT to look away. Naomi Watts is one of my favorite actress (a nose to die for), and during my review on "The Incredible Hulk" I had given a deserved praise for Tim Roth and the two dudes who plays the villains (Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet) is REALLY creepy. Finally, for consideration as well, given the content, this film was rated R but I think it even deserves an NC-17 rating even if the scenes rarely, if ever, happened behind the frame but this kind of given impression and imagine it for yourself kind of scene is actually worked. Really well. Not easy to stomach, and certainly not for a casual viewer who merely wishes to have fun in her viewing experience.

And then there's the 100th minute scene. From what I've read in various board messages, most of the viewers hated this scene. Well, I personally think, that particular scene is a great scene in a way that it slaps you in the face, hard. It's something that you totally didn't expect and goes "bam" Down you goes, all bloody and gory.

My Rating: ***1/2 / **** - This is a kind of film that made you cringe and silently mouthed the 'F' word. To film that could lasted such impression to me deserves at least a three and a half rating. Given enough time, this film could even well wade into one the most memorable film (four rating). Won't be a favorite though, cause to put this film into a favorite means that I would want to revisit this film time and again and by doing so, it would implies that I was a psycho. I had a very troubled sleep after I saw this film.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I usually don't take a rom-com genre seriously. But time and again, I found one that really hit the spot. Either if it's because I could very much relate myself to the characters or simply that the film is indeed in an outstanding quality among its peers. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is one of those film.

Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) is a TV superstar. She stars in famous TV shows called "Crime Scene: Scene of a Crime" apparently in an alternate universe where terrible one-liner, and shockingly stupid dialog could be passed as a hit TV series. For a five-year-and-a-half, she dated Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) a talented (questionable) musician but hadn't work to fulfilled his passion yet as he only wrote "dark and ominous" soundtrack for TV series. I could relate to Peter in a way that his life is lacking direction. Besides work, which he did most of the time at home, he spent his time lazing around on the couch and watching mind-numbing TV shows. Practically, he has his own little world from which he is ever reluctant to leave, simply going nowhere. Just like yours truly here. However, he hasn't hit the bottom just yet. Sarah is his anchor. But when Sarah suddenly dropped the bomb, and dumped him, that was when he plunge. Devastated and advised by his friends, Peter decided to go vacationing to Hawaii only to met Sarah and the very reason she had broken up with him, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) a rising rock superstar. Again, in an alternate universe where terrible singer with penchant to sexual lyrics could be passed as a rock superstar.

My initial thought of this film is that the main dude is the main protagonist one. The film want us to sympathize with him, to root for him, to cheer him up and probably get through day with hands held high in a winning salute (not to mention, a buxom babe who happened to be a front desk clerk in the hotel where he was staying dangling to his feet). Obviously, that, put the object from the title of this film (Sarah Marshall) into a no-good bitch. But then again, had that been the case, what made this film different than million other rom-com films that held the same vibe?

I was surprised, genuinely surprised that Sarah Marshall is not at all a heartless bitch who just casually shattered our good-man-slash-protagonist's heart into a million pieces as she portrayed to be. I took a special liking to the way the film told its story. Immediately, as the film begins, Sarah was put into a position where she should be hated with all of your heart's content and only progressed downward as the film progressed, up to a point (at least in my case) where we wanted her to get a payback as mean as possible. However, minutes later, I was shocked that in one scene, and one scene only, I could changed my perspective toward Sarah. She has the same treatment with any other prominent casts in this film, a very humane treatment that pull these characters from the screen and put them in a real life where there's no black or white characters. Just gray. And that what made this rom-com different than the other film from this genre. That, and the fact that I could apply my personal real-life to that of Peter's.

My favorite moment: Dinner scene where the prominent casts discussed (more of mocking I should say) Sarah's latest film about "a spirit manifestation that could kill through the cell-phone" to which Sarah defends that it was actually about "a fear of the rapid advancement of technology" Peter mocked the absurd idea of the film. What makes it funny is that Kristen Bell is actually starred in "Pulse" and the fact that she lets the script mocking Sarah for the film which inadvertently (or not) also mocked her in the real-life for "Pulse" is even funnier.

Judd Apatow produced this film, and now I'm convinced that every subsequent film that bore his name should be given a considerable thought despite of how cliche its premise promised to be. Judd had also promised that every film that got his name attached on either as a writer, producer, or director would have a penis showing. This film didn't falter from the promise. So, purist, beware, this film rated R for sexual scenes. But I promise you, if you're a fan of this genre, you'd gonna love this film. If you don't, then you need to revise your definition of "a fan of a particular genre".

My rating: ***1/2 / **** - Let's see, is this the best film that had Judd Apatow's name attached on it? This, and Superbad, if you asked me although I would give a slight edge to this film since I could relate more to this film.

Wheel of Time Movie Adaptation

Universal Pictures has 7 figures paid for rights to bring Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series to the movie screen. I wasn't excited. At all. I had a significant doubt that Universal Pictures could really pull this off. Really, Wheel of Time is a very vast world, with incredible details that had spanned for 11 books, hundreds (HUNDREDS) of prominent characters that even to exclude one of them is going to unbalance the ship, numerous warring factions each with their own motives, and not to mention countless artifacts and magics each with their own origin. I couldn't imagine how a screen writer could put a single volume of the serie into a feature-length film. Even if the film would runs for three hours. It would be really really hard for them to pull it off, if not impossible. Good luck with that.

I think I put it correctly when I say that just like most boys my age, I got acquainted with Fantasy genre through Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. I picked the book quickly after the first film, and it's only a matter of time before I made a transition from the relatively simple Lord of the Rings world to George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire world and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time world. Frankly, had you asked me, if you think that The Lord of the Rings is already a too heavy and too complicated reading material, then you wouldn't stand a chance to read through 11 books of Wheel of Time. So, therefore, even if I would love and utterly curious to see how Wheel of Time translates into a silver screen, I was pessimist that it would please the fan of the series.

Wall-E (2008)

Wall-E. When it comes to animation, Pixar rarely disappointed. Of course, some hit and miss are due to abound (I've never seen "Cars" for instance, and didn't really interested to see it in the near future) but as far as I'm concerned, given the premise (love story between robots and minimal dialog?), Wall-E delivers. The fact that this film arrives a month late to our local theater (as with most animation film out there) puzzled me a lot because this is a kind of holiday-family-film-thingy. I just hope they didn't prolonged "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" as well though of course, I think it is safe to assume so.

Welcome to the future. Earth's current inhabitant: One small cleaning robot, Wall-E. He was chosen by the nature to survive for 700 years and thus had developed some sort of curiosity and intelligence that I'm sure none of its original programmers were able to anticipate. Wall-E is a dedicated robot and lonely until suddenly, a robot, origin yet unknown, arrives from space. Her name is Eve and she quickly captures Wall-E's "heart". Together, they're bound to an adventure that led them to the last human civilization aboard the space fortress, Axiom.

It is easy to treat Wall-E, Eve, and any other robots featured in this film as a fully-equipped with human emotions robot through tiny gestures that once you passed the five minutes mark, you could forget that they're robots. Big kudos to the animators. From Wall-E's initial fear, Eve's exasperation and concerns, it is easy to imagine these robots as flesh-and-blood even if their purpose is still and intentionally remain alien and robotic. As absurd as it may sound, this is the best way to enjoy this film, sit back and relax, and stow away that trying-to-logicized-everything thoughts that you may have.

Finally, as a conclusion, even if the film had both subtle (HAL and Dave from 2001 made an appearance, although their names is not explicitly given, the resemblance is uncanny) and serious (ecological-greeny stuffs) messages, the unlikely courtship between Wall-E and EVE was more than enough to keep the viewers of all age hooked and interested. Of course, this film is not a sci-fi per se, therefore, its considerable lack of the "science" part (mostly involving space EVAs) are largely forgiven.

As we all know, Pixar is closely related to Apple, Eve's design should easily remind us to the white iPods and MacBooks but ultimately, the "bong" sound that greets every Mac OS X's user upon booting is quite palpable on at least two occasions. It doesn't really important, anyway just so you know. And there's a nod to the perhaps the only sound I would ever associated with space sci-fi films, "Also Sprach Zarathustra"

My rating: *** / **** - If I may, I would divide this film into two parts. Before and after Axiom. I luuvvvee the Before Axiom part, and frankly, the After Axiom part isn't really giving me other than the usual animation blather. But it's still good, though.

Backlog: Malaysia - Singapore Travelogue pt.3

Our journey is far from over. It was almost 1 am in Singapore, and we've got practically nowhere to go. We were left wandering in Chinatown by cab ($ 8.20) from Queens Terminal and spent almost an hour in local 24 hrs restaurant that actually still filled with many patrons. Finally, exhaustion took its toll (at least for me) and walking with that huge backpack isn't much fun anymore. This is our first (of second) mistake in Singapore soil. Checking in to the nearest hotel in Chinatown (Hotel 81) that cost us dearly ($ 179 for a night). But, all in all, it has been a pretty adventurous trip, and me and my wife were actually excited to re-enact our journey next time despite this wrongful decision (my decision, if I may add) that cost us a lot.

We spent almost nine hours in that hotel. At 11 am, we checked out, heads to one of the apartment in Chinatown, and got ourselves a small place to stay for a night for a measly $ 40 and the fun of the day had just begin.

Little do we know that on that particular day, Singapore is celebrating its National Day. Therefore, it was especially crowded that day, and we saw red shirts everywhere. We begin our day by going to the nearest MRT station, Chinatown. The very first thing I noticed in Singapore is how everybody using some sort of card as their payment. Thus, the very first thing I wanted to have is that card. Luckily, there's a Ticket Office in Chinatown MRT station (not all station had this office, and in Chinatown it only opens from 12 pm) so we asks the very helpful lady behind the counter for a card. She offers us a Daily Tourist Pass ($ 8 / day each with $ 10 deposit refundable upon returning the card within 5 days. Total: $ 18). We were so lucky to have this card for given the standard tariff, and the amount of time we were using the transportation either by MRT or bus, had we didn't have the card, we would spent $ 30 - $ 35 minimum on tickets alone.

Commuting in Singapore is a no-brainer if you're good with maps and I'm considered myself very very good with maps. It took very little for me to memorized the MRT map and means to go to various "recommended" location to visit in Singapore. The first location we're visiting is obviously Orchard Rd. We travels there with MRT which involving switching trains halfway through, took a lunch there (I personally, didn't really liked Orchard Rd. perhaps because other than Starbucks or Movie theater, I generally hated Shopping-Malls and I don't really see why I should treat Malls that littered Orchard Rd. differently) and quickly went away albeit not quick enough to my liking.

Another obvious site is Melion Park. We really have no idea where to go, even my friend who has been to Singapore for an n-th time doesn't really have the clue either (I told you before, he was a spoiled-and-freakishly-rich boy). He said it was in Sommerset, and so we go there by MRT, but we saw another Malls and I hate it already. One of the local citizen pointed us to City Hall and this is where we, for the first time, actually seen the ridiculous crowd who celebrated the National Day. People flocking the street in front of the Esplanade theater, all the way to the bridge that led to Melion Park. My wife, who wanted to visit the lion statue in Melion Park, put a second thought and decided against it after we saw the ridiculous crowd which make it near impossible to go near the statue.

After few photo shoots, we go to Bugis Village for souvenirs (they're cheap! This is where you need to go to bought souvenirs, if you asked me) and a light dinner. Afterward, we went to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal almost all the way to the eastern side of the island to bought our home ticket to Batam. Of course, the Terminal is almost closed. But, we learnt a valuable lesson that there's actually another Ferry Terminal just two MRT stations from Chinatown (Harbour Front). Our feet is already sore from walking all the time, but as the nice lady in Tanah Merah said that the last ferry from Harbour Front departed at 10 pm, we decided to go to Harbour Front. Only to find out that they don't sell tickets in advance. Exhausted, but happy, we decided to go back to Chinatown and immediately fell asleep.

For fear of no tickets available, we head to Harbour Front early in the morning to bought three tickets to Batam at 1250 pm. This is where I made my second mistake. The nice lady asked me, "Pulang balik?" (Going back?) which I had wrongfully assumed that she asked wether I was going back to my home country to which of course I said, yes. An hour later, my wife revealed to me that she actually asked wether I want a two-way ticket to which I had given a "Yes" for an answer. That set us back $ 41 each, and three unused one-way ticket to Singapore from Batam that valid until July 31st, 2009 which we're planned to use for ourselves later this year.

The ferry went exactly on time and you know the very first thing my wife and I did right upon our arrival in Batam? Local food, plenty of rice, plenty of chillies, and a glass of warm tea. That made my day.

All in all, it was a very nice experience. My wife and I brought $ 400 and RM 200 and we are left with $ 40 in small change. But, there's a plenty room for improvement that I dare to say, you could spent two days and two nights in Singapore with only $ 150 and still able to brought back souvenirs. Professional wise, Singapore is a place I would love to work in. Superb transportation system that renders the ole reason of "caught in a traffic jam" largely useless and laughable. But for a mid-range salary man, I still prefers Jakarta than Singapore to raise a family. Much.

By the way, we had already planned our next "unplanned" trip. Instead of going south from Kuala Lumpur, we're going to try to head north from Kuala Lumpur. Penang, Phuket, and perhaps as far as Hanoi if our budget permitted.

Fin.

Backlog: Malaysia - Singapore Travelogue pt.2

We don't know who had made the decision, or even if a discussion has been made that led into such action. I remember throwing a question of wether we should stay for a night in Johor Bahru before crossing the border to Singapore early or straight ahead to Singapore that night as well. All i know is that we found ourselves standing in line for a transit bus that led us to Singapore. It was 2230 hrs.

The driver asked us where we're heading. Stupidly, I answered (most of the time, I had assumed the role of leading the party and did all the questioning-and-answering) "Singapore" The driver said, "Singapore is big, where is exactly you're going to?" I said, "Chinatown" The driver frowned a bit and later said that he could take us as far as Queens Terminal and the fare is 5.40 for three. I found out later that the bus was numbered #170 and didn't passed Chinatown at all and the fare he asks was in Singapore dollar which I had paid in Malaysian Ringgit that due to the minimum light and an almost identical color of 5 Malaysian Ringgit and 5 Singapore dollar went unnoticed by the driver. This is a genuine first time mistake in my part. I could assured you that the mistake was not deliberate, and I genuinely felt sorry for it.

Thinking that everything is going to be alright, we rode the bus away to Singapore. Despite the situation that we had no idea whatsoever whence we're going to head in Singapore and the fact that it was a mere hour away from midnight doesn't damped our spirit. In fact, we're so high spirited that we felt like singing. I was, for once, excited about traveling.

Singapore

Initial plan: Arrive at 0400 hrs, look for an apartment to rent in Chinatown, and sight seeing for the whole day.
Miniscule details: A map of Singapore that shown MRT line.
Execution:

Upon crossing the border to Singapore at Johor Bahru, we got hold up at the custom due to our religion (I say, WTF?) which apparently was obvious judged by our goatees. My wife cleared though, but me and my friend had to spent almost half an hour questioned. Of course, we are cleared eventually, but really, just because we had goatees we had to be detained? Even if it's for a short while, I was quite insulted. Anyway, the clock hits 2330 hrs when we finally stepped into Singapore's soil. Imagine, 2230, no means of transportation, no local acquaintances, no nothing. Yet, we were happy and chatted excitedly about the previous event even took some photographs (only minutes before we saw a $500 fine notice for taking pictures. Fortunately, no one spotted us taking photos).

We sat around for a while in the custom discussing of what to do. There were buses coming and going but we have no idea which one to take, and after all, our bus that we took from Johor Bahru bus station has obviously leave us behinds for we took quite a long time in custom.

When the night goes on, we decided to board any bus available. And again, noticing our big backpacks, the driver asked us where we are heading and he pointed us to board bus #170 instead. Moments later (considering that it was almost midnight, it's amazing that there's still buses available), we board the bus. Upon seating, we are wondering wether we should pay or not. Again, I did the asking. I asked the Indian bus driver wether we should pay or no because we've already paid the other #170 driver at Johor Bahru for taking us to the Queens terminal. To my surprise, he urges me to sit back and asking none.

And finally, we've got our first view of Singapore and it has been a long day.

To be continued.. tomorrow.

Backlog: Malaysia - Singapore Travelogue pt.1

Generally, I won't say that I'm in favor of traveling. Not enthusiast, at least. Hence, when an opportunity to travel appeared before me, I wasn't really hyped up for the task. However, time and again, I found myself actually enjoying traveling. The past week is one of an instance where I found myself enjoying traveling.

I was on an office's errand in Pekanbaru last week. A week off-work for a three days duty? Why not? So, me and a couple of friend from the office went to Pekanbaru. On an impulse, my wife bought me a ticket to Kuala Lumpur, and one of my friend, unknowingly asked me, half-joking, about going to Singapore after Pekanbaru. I told him about me and my wife's plan to go to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and shown him our respective round-trip tickets and he immediately jumped into the wagon and so, there we were, three of us, with a huge baggage, two laptops, plenty of dirty clothes, and a totally unplanned trip.

Mind you, none of us three has ever gone to an unplanned, unsponsored trip to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore before. My friend comes from a rich family (filthy rich family) that never in his life he stayed in less than a 5-star hotel whenever he went to Singapore with his family and no, I'm not kidding. My wife and I comes from a rural village where our idea of delicacy is simply plenty of rice and chillies and had planned to have this trip as cheap as possible. Go figure how we managed our differences.

Malaysia

Initial plan: 0840 hrs from Pekanbaru, 1025 hrs arrived in Kuala Lumpur, immediately bought an over-night train ticket to Singapore, spent an evening sight-seeing in Kuala Lumpur, enjoys local delicacies, etc, and finally head to Singapore with a 2230 hrs train, scheduled to arrive in Singapore around 0400 hrs. Perfect plan, if you asked me.
Miniscule details: None.
Execution: Our plane got delayed. Instead of 0840 hrs from Pekanbaru, we departed at 1015 hrs. Arrived at Kuala Lumpur at 1155 local time. My friend, whose passport due to expired in 4 months immediately put himself in trouble at the custom. Apparently, it seems that there's a new rule that your passport must had at least six months of remaining validity before entering Malaysia. We had no idea about this rule, although that the custom in Pekanbaru has warned us about it. The custom dude even said in a harsh tone that my friend shouldn't even be permitted to enter. Fortunately, my friend could produce our return ticket from Batam and wise enough to keep his mouth shut (he was Bataknese and they often stereotyped as being hot-tempered) and so, he was permitted to enter.

After having a small lunch at the airport, we decided to head to Kuala Lumpur. This is our first time in Kuala Lumpur so we spent a little bit of time fuzzing about deciding what to do next in the terminal. We decided to go to KL Sentral as its name suggest that it was located in the center of Kuala Lumpur and after asking for direction a bit, we board a bus (fare: RM 9) that heads to KL Sentral. The trip took an hour, the road was definitely better than in Jakarta, but the driver seems a little bit timid that although the road was beautiful, wide, and traveled by few, the driver put his speed at check all the time.

In KL Sentral, we're asking around a bit for means to travel to Singapore. This is where our plan deviates greatly. Only three tickets available for the night train, first class (fare: RM 125 each). But, the ticket-master refused to sell us ticket because the tickets were meant for two females and one male not one female and two males as our party currently consists of. Even a persuasion from my wife couldn't wavered the ticket-master to sell us the tickets. That leaves us with only one option even if my wife disapproved greatly, we couldn't see any other feasible way to travel to Singapore. Bus.

For a RM 7, we ride a taxi to Pudujaya bus station. I tried to converse with the taxi-driver but he doesn't flinch, either he is deaf (which is unlikely, given his profession) or he loathe us for bringing huge baggages to his taxi and for traveling a very short distance to Pudujaya (you could actually walk from KL Sentral).

Arriving at Pudujaya, we tried to keep up with the plan of bought an advance tickets to Singapore as late as possible, and spent an evening in Kuala Lumpur but of course, there's no ticket to satisfy our needs. Improvising greatly, we asked for a direction to Johor Bahru instead and bought three tickets (RM 27 each). This include us running around crossing the crowded street, bumping and probably stepping another passerbys, with our heavy luggage (my friend's total luggage was around 18 kg, mine has around 12 kg, and my wife has around 7 kg). The trip wasn't actually as bad as I would've expected. We could really get some decent sleep from KL to Johor Bahru and except for one stop where we were ushered to switch bus by the driver, there's nothing to complain about the trip especially considering that the fare was one fifth of the train's fare. Without accident, or anything worthy to report, we're arrived in Johor Bahru bus station around 2130 hrs local time (Almost 5 hrs travel).

But our problem actually had just made its official start. To be continued.. tomorrow.

In case

..you're wondering, I'm at Pekanbaru right now, writing this post from the local hotel. I'll be here for about three days, and then rendezvous with my wife in Kuala Lumpur for about a day, and in Singapore for a couple of days. Therefore, this blog might not going to see another update for a week.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

The X-Files - I Want to Believe. I was a pessimist when it comes to sequels. Especially if the original was out ten years ago, from a celebrated TV series that has deeply integrated into a special part of my childhood and which I've grown a fondness upon. Further, the sequel was subtitled "I Want to Believe" which more like a justification from its creators (Chris Carter and co.), an echo of hope that they themselves didn't quite confident with it and need to put an assurance to us, the target audiences, even to themselves that they wished to believe that the film would turn out okay.

Watching the original X-Files film, for me (first time almost nine years ago, second time just a couple of days ago), it's like watching three episodes of the series crammed into one two hours cinema experience. That's not saying much, I know, but here's the catch, these three episodes were actually among their best episodes. I wish i could say the same with The X-Files - I Want to Believe.

Some years had passed since the last we saw Scully and Mulder shoulder-to-shoulder against the unexplainable, logic-defying cases that is The X-Files. The X-Files has been closed, Dana Scully is pursuing her career in medical and Fox Mulder, bearded and grumpy, as ever, are living together in a secluded house. They had cut their ties to the FBI. Meanwhile, a case of missing FBI agent and subsequent tip from a 'phsycic' who claims to have a 'vision' on the agent led the FBI to open the old files and requested Mulder to be back on the investigation team. Of course, in order to have the film rolling, Mulder agreed on one condition that Scully hitch the ride as well. Now, this led me to questioned the fed's credibility. I mean, come on, a tip from a 'phsycic' who claims to have a 'vision'? Well, whatever works for you, Carter. Anyway, my level of appreciation to this film hits the extreme low when we saw a picture of George W. Bush accompanied with the familiar Mark Snow's theme. I murmured to myself, "What the fuck was that?" that apparently was too loud that made people who sit immediately to my left thrown her frown at me. It's not that I'm pro with George W. Bush and all, but really, the scene was absolutely a clear in-joke and mockery but just like every bad jokes out there, I don't get it.

For me, the appeal from X-Files series was its conspiracy theory and on-and-off chemistry between Scully, the skeptic and Mulder, the believer. Mind you, I love X-Files series, so in love that I was actually proud to share the same birth date (obviously different years) with Fox Mulder. Therefore, when the former was clearly absent, it's only logical that it left me with a whim of un-satisfaction. Even so, I totally dig the decision to this. After missing for some years, it's only appropriate that Chris Carter made the decision in order to gain new audiences who never ever heard of the X-Files before (I believe, that these new audiences are actually those that can't get the ticket for The Dark Knight and decided to bought ticket for another film that they haven't seen. Thus, The X-Files). Thus, even if I sorely missed CSM and the Lone Gunmen, I could understand. But, what infuriates me more is the apparent lack of commitment from David Duchovny and especially, Gillian Anderson to reprise their role. Maybe it's just me, but I cannot see their mutual respect to each other's view, their genuine concern of each other that so apparent in the series and in the first film, and, this is the worst, although they have been living together, I see no affection, let alone love between these two.

The film's "mystery" was also largely disappointing. The execution was dull and tedious, the revelation was a "meh", and even if at one point, Mulder was put into a peril, we (well, I) don't see any immediate believable danger that threatened him and considering that this happens at the near climax of the film, it shows that how much detached the characters of this film to yours truly here.

My rating: *1/2 / **** - A largely lame excuse for a "reunion", let's hope that Chris Carter (who was excited about a "sequel") could put his feet on the ground again, and let this film gone into a forgotten history.