So first of all, any thoughts or questions regarding science fiction in general? Do I need to clarify what science fiction is? Hmmm?

Here’s a few things I can write about:
1) I watched Thor 3D in IMAX last week. It was Marvelously awesome!
2) My masters research on the Indonesian science fiction fandom is in full swing. I might post a few tidbits about what’s going on about this.
3) Oh yeah, I’ve attended my first science fiction convention two Mondays ago. SwanCon 2011 was quite interesting.
4) … and fiksilmiah.com is currently offline, because the owner (which means, me) lagged in payment. It costs a bit of money to maintain a website, and there’s not much point in supporting the unsupported (whatever that means). Will get back to this.

So, how have you been doing, my dear readers?

Alright, news. First things first, I (Arvin C.) have started a new Facebook group called Fiksilmiah. If you’re Indonesian and happen to have an interest in things science fiction, feel free to Ask to Join Group.

For the mean time, I can only add my Facebook friends to that group, but non-acquaintances can also join the group if they Ask to Join Group (it’s that little grey button on the page’s upper right corner).

Second, I’m hoping to bring more contributions to this humble science fiction blog. There might not be much, but please stay tune.

Imagine a world, where every computer programs we use enter and have life.

A world where these programs are reflections of their users’ image, and this world is as living and pulsing as our own. A world of access, connections, digital data converging.

Tron (1982) is a Disney science fiction film. Written and filmed by Steven Lisberger in 1982, it tells a story of a young man named Kevin Flynn who was facing corporate evil and a villainous artificial intelligence. It dealt with issues of software piracy, hacking, information freedom and digital tyranny.Flynn used to work for Encom (a big software company) and made video games. One day, a colleague of his name Dillinger stole his programs with help of his Master Control Program AI. Months later, Dillinger got a promotion from creating ‘Flynn’s games’, while Flynn was fired from ENCOM and end up working as a video game arcade owner, Flynn spent countless nights trying to hack into ENCOM’s servers to find proof of his software theft. Fortunately, Flynn still has friends in ENCOM: Alan Bradley (a computer security expert) and Lora, Alan’s girlfriend and Flynn’s ex-girlfriend. Together, the three of them broke into the ENCOM building to find the proof.

Bradley said that his program TRON can help restore security access to ENCOM, which was now completely control by the MCP. Not wanting to lose, the MCP unleashed Lora’s project upon Flynn: a digitizing laser that can digitize objects and recreate them in the software world. Being shot by the beam, Flynn finds himself inside the computer world (imagine that for a 1982 story!). Forced to fight gladiatorial games, Flynn allies himself with Tron, who curiously looks exactly like Alan.

At that time, the story was pretty okay, characters were relatable, but the most interesting aspect of this film was its special effects. Many sources would agree that Tron was one of the first films to extensively use CGI (computer generated imagery) for its effects. It was pretty good, that the Motion Picture Academy refused to nominate Tron for Best Special Effects because they considered the CGI usage as cheating. But Tron was nominated for Best Costume and Best Sound. Ah the irony.

Tron 1982 trailer

There was a video game sequel Tron 2.0 in 2003,which curiously didn’t feature the character Tron.

Jet Bradley from Tron 2.0

The film’s true sequel however will be appearing December this year. The title: Tron Legacy.

Tron Legacy teaser poster

it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to this blog. Sorry for my tardiness, but be ensured that I will make some regular updates to this blog.

Might have to do a bit change in here and there though.

This is a poster for Avatar. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, 20th Century Fox, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.

Avatar (2009) is written and directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi.

The year is 2154 and paraplegic ex-marine Jake Sully is sent to a distant planet called Pandora, on a mission initially meant for his dead twin brother. The rich and lush Pandora is inhabited by locals named Na’vi–a humanoid race of yellow-eyed, blue-skinned beings, each about 2.7m to 3.7m tall. Jake is to drive what is called an Avatar, which is a human-made Na’vi lookalike that is connected and controlled by a person’s mind while the person is kept safe somewhere else. What is once thought as a harmless mission of getting to know Pandora and the Na’vis turns complicated as the humans are willing to do whatever it takes to mine the planet’s rich mineral which is greatly valuable on Earth.

When people hear Avatar, they think “special effects”. And they are right, since Avatar flaunts an impressive, groundbreaking CGI work. Everything looks so surreal yet believable, out-of-this-world yet convincing. You might be skeptic about blue aliens being believable but when you see those aliens move, speak in their language, express their emotions, you’ll be immersed in the world. You will believe. Neytiri has yellow eyes, blue skin, a tail and is inhumanly tall, but damn she IS pretty. She IS sexy. The Na’vi culture and language feel so real that it seems like they really do exist. The abundant and luscious Pandora and the Na’vis feel like a version of Earth that we often dream of–green, untouched, harmonious. Who isn’t awed when seeing Pandora in night for the first time? With its glow-in-the-dark plants and wondrous animals? The stunning visual effects never fail to draw you in.

There is no denying that the plot is not as impressive as the special effects. When you’ve seen the 3-minute trailer, you’ve practically found out the plot of the whole movie. The characters develop like you think they will develop, no surprising plot twists whatsoever. But that does not matter at all. You are already engaged in Pandora, captivated by its beauty, charmed by the characters. The fact that the plot is so-so does not matter at all because Avatar gives you a movie experience that you don’t often get. That kind of movie experience that The Lord of the Rings trilogy gave you. Something mind-blowing, something awe-inspiring, an experience you’ll remember forever. Avatar reminds us why we go to the movies. Avatar shows us what 3D is for. For almost three hours Avatar never fails to keep us interested, keep us in awe. This is a movie to remember, an experience you’ll never forget.

After some considerations with my Indonesian friends, it has been decided that Inascifi.com will stay online for the moment. As we’re finishing the first quarter of 2010, a plethora of science fiction productions have appear. Of course, one of 2009′s production that’s bringing a lot of media attention is James Cameron’s Avatar.

I can tell for the first two months in Indonesia, Avatar was in the top ten box office list in Blitz Megaplex.

How related this is to science fiction fandom in Indonesia remains to be seen, but for now we have our first review of Avatar from Naomi Lie.

Once again, enjoy reading through Inascifi. We hope to bring more content online!

Please post your answers at:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=13973&uid=46777425774

or post your comments below.
—-

Halo semuanya, Arvin nih. Sebagian dari anda mungkin sudah mengenal saya, sebagian lain hanya kenal secara online. Selama bertahun-tahun ada sebuah grup yang disebut Inascifi. Grup ini awalnya kumpulan penggemar fiksi ilmiah yang kebetulan ditemukan saya. Grup ini juga memiliki blog dan website di inascifi.com. Tapi karena sudah lama tidak ada aktivitas ataupun partisipasi dari anggota grup tersebut, saya sedang memikirkan untuk mematikannya karena alasan finansial. Bagaimana pendapat anda?

Harap dijawab di:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=13973&uid=46777425774

atau beri komentar di bawah.

Before I start getting into reviews, info or any other topics related to science fiction, let me first apologize for the lack of updates in this blog for the past few months.

Anyway, I’m happy to report about my recent experience attending a local Indonesian fan community celebrating their 6th Anniversary. Yes, The Indonesian Star Trek Community has turned six years old this year, and 2009 has been a very wonderful year for them. Aside the new movie that came out last May (or June in Indonesia), the community have received lots of support (including from PT Indosat, one of Indonesia’s local telecommunications provider) and had a wonderful birthday party at Pisa Kafe Mahakam (near Blok M, Jakarta Selatan).

I wish I could post pictures and stuff like that, but unfortunately my camera never left my bag. Well, I’ll post some pics from the Indo Star Trek’s facebook page.

Qa’pla! (Success in Klingonese)

I myself felt benefit by the genre in many aspects.

Reading the novel Starship Troopers (by Robert A. Heinlein) helped me understand civics, the nature of human spirit and violent tendency, and the necessity to sacrifice one’s own self for the benefit of others.

The Star Trek franchise gave me a good idea what a brighter and better future would be for mankind once we eliminate poverty and starvation through economic abundance.

The Star Wars saga gave a good story regarding good vs evil and the power of love and redemption.

The Bicentennial Man (based on the novella of the same title written by Isaac Asimov) helped me realize the value of human life, the simple biological processes we experience daily that we’ve often take for granted. The film also conveyed a wonderful message of love between a man and woman, though certain religious folks will find the concept very offensive.

The Stargate franchise, provoked the idea what if aliens who are so technological advanced came down to Earth in 6,000 BC and enslaved the human race. With their advanced technology, they build the Pyramids as their ships’ landing sites, and put themselves as gods upon the primitive humanity.

Quantum Leap, has a story of an altruistic scientist who want to do good in a world so filled with tears and sadness, and through time travel he disguised himself as an ordinary person who happen to be at the right place and right time, and changed history to the better and touch many lives in the process.

These stories… are quite complex and requires a good deal of intelligence to understand, and apparently not many Indonesians seem to appreciate this. Perhaps they do, but just never found the right channel to access news and information regarding ‘science fiction’.

there was ina_sci-fi.

Like many small electronic groups that formed in the virtual world, the community grew and shrank, and almost collapsed.

Then, the founder came up with the idea to shorten the name, to Inascifi.

The idea was to reduced the task of typing underscores ( _ ) and dashes ( – ) signs each time he sent an email to the group, and it worked.

The suddenly! Without warning, the founder’s father found himself being billed a good amount of American Dollars on his credit card. The founder bought the domain, inascifi.com .

It was a blessing in disguised. The Yahoo! provider allowed inascifi.com become a small business website, with many tools and emails and bandwidth space. But the main issue was not with the tools.

It was the tool user. He need time and concentration a large amount of fun in developing the website and community. Added with the burden as a research executive in a marketing research company, reduced his free time and creativity.

The science fiction community’s future was threaten.

< to be continued >

Indonesian Star Trek Community

these Indonesian Star Trek fellows are impressive.

This year they had a gathering in Bandung, another gathering in Jakarta, and many other gatherings before that.

Still, as much I am a Trekker, I still love Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and other science fiction related literature/media.

I know there are two Star Wars groups in Indonesia (one dedicated to Jedi, the other to the Sith).

Where are they now?

Stay in touch!

Having the crew recast was the only option, since two original actors have long since passed away.

DeForest Kelley, who played ship’s doctor Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy was the first member of the original cast to pass away, and the second was James Doohan, who played the Scottish engineer Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott.

Nevertheless, the rest of the original actors were way too old to portray their roles, with the exception of Leonard Nimoy who is famous worldwide for playing Mister Spock, the U.S.S. Enterprise‘s half-human half Vulcan first officer. Unlike us humans, the Vulcans of the planet Vulcan have an average life expectancy of over 200 years, so having Mr. Spock appear in the 24th century, still alive although very old, is very plausible.

Of course, having the premise ‘how the core crew of the original series (recast by younger better looking actors) came together’ sends the impression “Oh great, just another prequel story. Been there, done that.” Heck, even George Lucas started this whole prequel thing with his Star Wars episodes I-II-III, then apparently it became a trend… there’s Smallville, then there’s Hannibal Rising (origin story of Silence Of The Lambs), Fast and Furious (fourth film of the series, which is actually a midquel = sequel to The Fast And The Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious, but a prequel to The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift). Oh, don’t forget the re-imagination of Battlestar Galactica.

Yep, even back in 2001 there was a prequel series titled Enterprise (named such way so the viewers can associate the series with Star Trek without using the word Star Trek) which was renamed into Star Trek: Enterprise (which beats the whole purpose of the naming it Enterprise in the first place). Set in 2151-2155, the series takes place 90 years after mankind’s first official contact with the alien Vulcans and before the founding of United Federation of Planets.

Still with the theme of exploring the stars and putting humanity’s mark among the stars, Enterprise (later renamed into Star Trek: Enterprise) was challenged with scrutiny by many hard core fans (and some considered in direct violation with established continuity). Because of low ratings, the show was eventually canceled in the fourth season. In fact, the last episode of the series titled These are the voyages… was considered by many fans and cast members alone the worst episode ever written as a series finale.

Okay, so back Abram’s Star Trek.
Things you really need to know:
1. It is set around the 23rd century, some time before Captain Kirk‘s famous five year mission.
2. While some sources stated it as a remake or reboot, writers Alex Kuzman and Robert Orzi of Transformers (2007) fame, went to considerable effort to honor the established timeline and essense. If you want me to spoil things for you, let’s just say that the story does involves Leonard Nimoy back as (a much, much older Mr. Spock).
3. The U.S.S. Enterprise will be very different from the one seen in the original series or movies. One reason of this more-than-cosmetic differences would perhaps be explained in the opening act.
4. Star Trek’s message of a hope for a bright future and peaceful exploration among the stars will still be the core theme.

As a Star Trek fan who lives in Indonesia I can’t help being a bit worried. In fact, very worried. I’m worried because of the assumption Star Trek isn’t as popular here as it is in other countries.
Also, our film distributor companies have a reputation of not showing films that have low market potential (example: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek Nemesis). Worst cast scenario, they won’t show it at all. But it might not come to this as I saw the movie poster in Blitz Megaplex last month.

Arvin at Blitz Megaplex, Mall of Indonesia. Jan 26 2009.

Still, it would be the best interest if the subtitling guy do not screw up the film’s translation into Bahasa Indonesia.

Heck, I’ll volunteer myself to make that translation/subtitling if the person involved is inexperienced with Star Trek.

-Arvin N. Chandra

I’ve written about five (hopefully) good (if not great) films that will be coming this year.

Here’s some thoughts I have regarding those titles:

1. Star Trek.

After four years disappearing from the airwaves and six years from the big screen, Star Trek is back. But a good question would be, which Star Trek is this? From the sources I’ve gathered around, I can say a few things. First, this new Star Trek is not a simple remake… starting a new Trek franchise from scratch. The guys behind this film are putting good effort in respecting 40 years of established Star Trek lore. Although it risks a lot of alienating old fans, in many ways I can imagine it will bring new fans as well. Second, this coming summer will be a real competition. Noticed that these next four titles are all releasing within 3 months? Right during holiday season. So to be honest, I hope that Star Trek really tops them all.

Oh yeah, Indonesia also have its own Indo-Star Trek chapter. They’re located on http://www.indo-startrek.org/

In respect for the other titles:
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Wolverine is awesome. No doubt. Hugh Jackman is the perfect cast for Logan. And after the rather disappointing third flick (X-Men: The Last Stand), the guys decide to bring it a bit back behind. We get to see an origin story of Wolverine. Please know that in the comic universe itself, Wolverine’s origin has been rather recently fleshed out… and the way film media treat the source material tend to be… either good, or really really… ugh. Good example: Batman Begins (2005), Spider-Man (2002), Iron Man (2008). Bad examples: Batman Forever (1995), The Spirit (2008) the Smallville series (2001-present, although it’s a TV series instead of a film). From the trailer I’ve seen… Wolverine has potential to be a real action pack and violent movie. But hey, so was Punisher: War Zone (2008). (I still don’t get why many don’t like 2003′s The Punisher).

3. Terminator Salvation. I’ve got mixed feelings for this one. The premise is quite simple… man vs machine in a post apocalyptic future. We got a man destined as mankind’s savior. We got killing machines. There’s probably no Schwarzenegger on this one, but hey… at least there’s no Keannu Reeve (Neo) or Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith.. or Megatron), but what? We got Christian Bale as JOHN CONNOR? Isn’t this a bit… a.. hmm… overcast? Bale is so successful in the Batman franchise! Why is he into the Terminator franchise? As the sixth (or is it seventh) person to play John Connor?
Note: The first John Connor to appear is the future scarred Connor in the opening segment of T2:Judgment Day. Then there’s also the teenage John Connor played by Edward Furlong. Then there’s the young adult 20-some John Connor played by Nick Stahl in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Then there’s the teenager John Connor played Thomas Derek in the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which conveniently disregard the continuity of T3)… as well one or two child actors playing John in flashbacks. Okay… brief rundown: “This is not the future my mother warned me about. In this future, I’m not sure we can win.” The future has changed… can John Connor follow his destiny to save mankind from Skynet?
This is my second most anticipated movie of this year.

4. G.I.JOE: The Rise of Cobra. An action film based on an old cartoon serial, of an elite American task force fighting the global terrorist group Cobra… where no blood has never been spilled, nobody ever apparently die… and … goodness, the animations and morality back then was so simplistic. But hey, it was the 1980′s. Now, Step Up’s actor Channing Tatum is playing Duke? Funnily, I sort of accidentally read the movie script… and it was awesome! Hope this movie rocks!

5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Hmm… the plot for this movie is very tightly sealed. I couldn’t find much about this, except we’ll have more Autobots and a lot more Decepticons… and humans. Shia and Megan are back… which should be a good thing. Cool vehicles-transforming-into-robots… check. Exploding buildings with cool visual effects… check. Big Bad Villain making a Huge Comeback…. errr W.H.A.T.?

What if a person is born in physically old, and grows younger in each passing day?
This touching story is based on the short story (that can be read online here or in Project Guttenberg.

Having read the short story first before watching the film, I was quite surprised at the ‘creative liberty’ that the filmmakers have taken that elevated the main character (from someone in my opinion is selfish in the original short story) to a person of genuine care and sincerity to those around him in the film version.

Brad Pitt plays wonderfully (and for which he deserves an Academy nomination for Best Actor) as the reverse-aging Benjamin. Abandoned by his father as an infant with the infirmities of an old man, Benjamin grew up under the care of Afro-American woman in a retirement home.
As he noticed himself growing younger and stronger each day, he began to explore life, the world, and eventually love and sacrifice.
Being a drama film, the story pace is rather slow and only gets exciting in a few scenes, but the message for us to appreciate what we have, the time we can spend and who we can spend them with is always relevant for many people.

My rating:
Story: A-
Visual: A (you’ve got to love the scenery and make up effects they made for the aging characters)
Cast: A

overall: A

Edit:

Here are some trailer links.

Hi res download: http://movies.apple.com/movies/paramount/thecuriouscaseofbenjaminbutton/benbutton-tlr2a_h480p.mov

You can check the trailer.

Now I’m having doubts, whether I’m going to watch this or not.

The Chinese Lunar New Year just passed by early this week. For many Chinese, this day was a cause for hope and gathering with family and kin!

Inascifi wishes you all readers a Happy Lunar New Year!