Featured Review: X-FILES 2

The X-Files: I Want To Believe



Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet, Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner, Mitch Pileggi



Directed by Chris Carter



Grade: C-




"I don't believe this."
"You know, that's been your problem from the very beginning."

I certainly wanted to believe. I wanted to believe that this second film installment of The X-Files franchise would be an engaging sci-fi thriller, something that could possibly lend credence to future sequels. If anything, give David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson something to do with their careers and balance out the negativity surrounding most of the recently released tripe in the horror/sci-fi genre. Instead, like the religious beliefs of Anderson's Scully, all that was left for The X-Files: I Want To Believe, was ugly, open-ended doubt.

It's been so long since the television series and first film premiered, that I barely remember said film, 1998's Fight The Future. But there were some indelible images. A kid being consumed by black goo, our heroes being chased by bees, a giant alien spaceship. It was an entertaining movie that combined some of the best elements of the show; aliens and dramatic tension. But I Want To Believe refuses to mix in its' most unearthly lineage, rather opting to put away their metaphysical playthings for a more complex 'human' touch. And that extracts all the interest out of new and casual fans like myself in enjoying this movie.

Years after their last hurrah in the FBI, Dana Scully (Anderson) is a doctor in a Catholic hospital dealing with a crisis of faith, especially over a presumably terminally ill little boy. She gets called upon to dig up her old partner Fox Mulder, a not-so-sought-after fugitive, to help solve an unusual case involving another missing FBI agent. He eventually agrees, and begins to not only earn the trust of Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) the agent in charge of the investigation, but gets Scully involved in the process as well. The main chip the FBI have is Father Joe (Billy Connolly) a former Catholic priest and pedophile who has psychic visions that relate to the missing agent.

In essence the plot is less an exertion of the paranormal and supernatural, but that of a straight crime thriller with mythological subtext. However, therein lies its biggest problem: there seems to be more elements of films such as Zodiac or Stigmata than anything uniquely exciting or worthy of being a nearly two hour stand-alone television franchise vehicle. It drags on very, very slowly from one scene to the next without much of an element of surprise. When something climatic DOES happen, it pops out at you with all the excitement of a broken jack-in-the-box.

As fellow critic Michael Brieaddy points out, the film has very much the same feel that die hard fans of the television show know of. Like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The X-Files focused just as much on serious issues of people's lives and relationships as they did on the creatures. Not every episode is filled with alien and ghost arcs.

I'm all for serious drama fare. But ten years between films and a six year layoff on the franchise in general does not give them the excuse to build a template for a whole movie series with this much conversation building. Franchises like Batman and Spider-Man has earned the right to space out their action sequences with exposition and tension building and introducing future characters, but for The X-Files, with all subtle references to characters' past lives aside, we need a little refresher course. Had this been a direct sequel to Fight The Future, released in 1999 or 2000 while the show still was on the air, I Want To Believe might succeed without much mythological ado. But it's 2008, and nobody but the resolute fanboys care anymore.

None of the original supporting characters from the series' run appeared in the film (although many actors who served in bit episodic roles are littered throughout), save one. Mitch Pileggi, Assistant Director Walter Skinner, shows up for a brief scene towards the end. His appearance, no matter how canonical within the series of events, seems like an underwhelming attempt at getting longtime fans to clap or holler for another familiar face. But this is The X-Files, not The Brady Bunch Movie.

I may be nitpicking, because the performances were adequate enough. Xzibit never shouted 'Pimp My Ride!', and Connolly stood out as the formerly immoral priest, but really, if you're only making the movie to please a fan base that can't even beat Mamma Mia! in its second week at the box office, why not just resurrect it for cable television (The Sci-Fi Channel would kill for this license), or make a direct-to-DVD film series? Or are Duchovny and Anderson too busy to resort to such low wages? Looking at their resumes, I certainly find THAT hard to believe.