Well, I don’t get to movies very often, but sometimes I make a special point to go to particular movies.  The new X-Files movie is one of those times.  I saw it with my brother last Saturday night.  Being a big fan of the series (well, at least until the last 2 seasons), I had semi-high hopes going into the movie.  I’m well aware that movies like this may not be blockbuster hits, but like my friend Justin said, it would be good to see the characters again.  Would “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” live up to my hopes?

The Story

It’s hard to talk about the story of the movie without giving away too much.  The nature of an X-Files type story usually revolves around some “is it or isn’t it” premise.  Like “Is it aliens or isn’t it”?  “Is it supernatural or isn’t it”?  So much of the plot revolves around that premise that discussing it spoiler-free is hard.

A number of years have passed for Mulder and Scully, just as in real life.  Mulder no longer works for the FBI, having been run out in unpleasant circumstances.  Scully works as a medical doctor at a Catholic hospital.  Mulder remains rather bitter about it, while Scully is none-to-glad to have moved on to more a more normal life.  That is, until the FBI comes knocking at her door, looking for Fox Mulder.

An FBI agent has gone missing, and a disgraced priest is claiming to have visions related to the case.  And some of his visions seem to have merit.  Not knowing whether to believe him, the agent on the case brings in Mulder, who in turn gets Scully involved, much to her reluctance.  As the plot progresses, another woman turns up missing, and it appears to be related to some kind of bizarre medical experiment.

Mulder, as usual, is all too ready to believe the priest’s psychic abilities.  Scully doesn’t want to believe the disgraced priest, and her religious faith plays havoc with her objectivity not just with the FBI case, but in her dealings with a terminally ill child in her care.  Having put that chapter of her life behind her, she strongly resists Mulder’s attempts to drag her back into it.  But of course the team isn’t the same with just one of them, and she finds out that he needs her more than ever.

Analysis

David Duchovny seems to have fallen easily back into the role of Fox Mulder.  Gillian Anderson said in interviews that she’d spent so much time since the series trying NOT to act like Dana Scully in various roles that when she came back to Scully she found it difficult.  You wouldn’t know it by her performance, which was excellent.  She definitely had the meatier storyline with a wide range of emotional struggle, and played it well.  The supporting cast was good, although Alvin ‘Xzibit’ Joiner’s one-dimensional character, Agent Mosley Drummy, was on-screen one or two many scenes for me.

The “I Want to Believe” subtitle, familiar to fans who remember Mulder’s UFO poster from the series, is a reference that falls squarely on Scully’s shoulders in the movie.  She desperately wants to believe in something… in Mulder, in the psychic priest, in her own faith, in herself as a doctor.  This struggle permeates much of the plot, and gives Gillian Anderson the peach role.

The plot of the movie is decent.  I have read some reviews say that it is muddled, but I followed it just fine.  The atmosphere and tension builds up just right as well.  Overall I’d say it wasn’t a bad movie, but…

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… to me it wasn’t X-Files-ish enough.  Not in a rabid, fanboy way.  I understand the need to not throw in old government conspiracies, the Lone Gunman, the Cigarette-Smoking Man, and every other old X-Files crutch into the mix and confuse a mainstream audience who may never have watched the original series.  But psychic pedophile priests and a clandestine Frankenstein outfit are not the first, or second, or third things I’d think of when I think The X-Files.  No aliens??

Certainly, the plot fits the series, but I couldn’t help but think that it could have been Clarice Starling (“Silence of the Lambs”, “Hannibal”) on-screen instead of Scully and it would not have made much difference.  I’ve seen reviewers say that the world has moved on in 2008 from the premise of The X-Files.  That we know our government is up to know good (gack!  *rolls eyes*) and we have terrorists to fear now and not aliens.  What a load of bull.  I just think that, in an effort to swing towards a more non-X-Files audience, writers Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter moved a little to far from what made The X-Files so compelling before.  The characters were there (although Mitch Pileggi’s appearance as Walter Skinner was much too small), the chemistry was there, the atmosphere was there, but the plot was too generic to be memorable.

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Conclusion

If you are a fan of The X-Files, I would say go see the movie.  You’ll enjoy seeing Mulder and Scully together again solving a new mystery.  If you are not a fan, well, there are worse ways to waste your money, as the film is decent, but I can’t say I’ll be walking around encouraging non-fans to go.