Uh, what the hell did I just watch?
This is a 'no'. No to the whole thing. Well, the ending was cute. Mulder/Scully always will be.
But the rest of it was kind of a waste of time. There was almost no action, very little tension, and basically no point. This wasn't even much of an X-File, and even if it was, why Mulder and Scully? Why Mulder and that beard? Why couldn't Chris Carter have written a plot that somehow related to what happened at the end of the show? Or at least address that in some way other than what turned out to basically be a throwaway line?
Who greenlit this? This might have made for an OK episode of the show because it could have easily been reduced to 45 minutes. Or, you know, ten.
Basically, the entire story was contrived, like a lot of the weaker monster of the week episodes on the show, and it was designed entirely to produce tension between Mulder and Scully and to make Scully think about her career choices and her medical decisions. But it wasn't really that personal.
I couldn't bring myself to care about the case because half the time I couldn't figure out why I was even supposed to. It was certainly creepy enough for a horror movie, but this wasn't a horror movie, and the specifics of the case didn't really justify a feature length film. They didn't occupy that much screen time.
There was obviously a psychic connection between the paedophile priest and Dr Frankenstein, but WHY DID THAT MATTER? I'd bring up Clyde Bruckman as a comparison to a brilliant episode of the show where it did matter, but the movie already referenced him anyway. Chris Carter must have been so proud of himself for putting that line in the movie. They brought up Luther Lee Boggs, too, from yet another brilliant episode of the series. Two much better characters in much better stories.
There was one really great moment, though, that I simply cannot dismiss. Skinner. So I guess that answers the question of what happened to him at the end of 'The Truth'. But also, that, more than anything else, kind of made me wish I'd seen the series before this movie came out so I could see it in the theater, because I would imagine tremendous applause (why do people applaud at movies anyway? It's not like the creators can hear it) when he showed up on the screen.
And he kind of saved the day, too. But I wish he could have been there from the beginning. I wish we could have seen what happened with Kersh, and even Doggett and Reyes, but none of them were anywhere near this movie or this case, and there wasn't really enough backstory on what Mulder and Scully had been up to in the past six years to understand what their involvement may have signified.
The danger Mulder was in pales in comparison to what Scully went through in Fight the Future, and I never once feared for his safety. I knew he'd be rescued right at the last second, because that's always what happens. Not that I feared much for Scully in the first one, but Mulder's daring rescue of her was a lot more involved and difficult. Saving Mulder here just required a quick blow with a two by four from Scully.
But all for ... what? Just saving the day? This doesn't exactly open the door to a third movie, either. And weirdly, this was made in 2008. There were still four years to go before the end of civilisation and the alien invasion foretold in 'The Truth'. Why was that not addressed at all? Why was it not the main plot of the movie?
I hope Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny enjoyed their paychecks and that the fans who care less about actual plots enjoyed seeing them on the big screen, because as far as I can, that's really all this was for. It was fanservice, and it was crappy fanservice at that.
This isn't even worth the longer post I gave to the first movie and some of the better two part episodes. There's nothing left to discuss.
All I want to believe is that the third movie, if it gets made, is actually The X-Files and not ... whatever this was.
As someone who was never a fan of this television series I actually liked their first film The X-Files: Fight the Future. The story was not just interesting or exciting; it was also stand alone, cinematic and could never be mistaken for an episode.
ReplyDeleteThough it was unmistakably The X-Files, the film hit a mark that the television series always seemed to miss, and seeing his first film made me wonder if Chris Carter might be better suited for writing films instead of television. The X-Files: I Want To Believe would be my test for that theory. Was it the X-Files? Most definitely. Does it hold it's own as a film? Just barely.
The biggest difference between 'Fight the Future' and 'I Want To Believe' is that the former was a film; this was an episode. If it had been an X-Files episode it would have been a great episode. As it was a film, it was a pretty good film. The story revolves around a missing F.B.I agent whom the feds cannot seem to locate. Out of desperation they recruit the help of an ex-priest who also happens to be a pedophile (hence the ex) and claims to have psychic powers. The F.B.I does not know whether to fully trust the priests abilities, so Agent Mulder – through a little coaxing by agent Scully – is called back to assist them.
The X-Files was always an ongoing story about belief vs. skepticism. One of the things that shot that concept in the foot for me week after week was the fact that the audience is always let in on the trick. We see the behind the scenes going's on – the Vampires running around town, the abductions taking place, etc – all from an off screen perspective. So from our vantage point there is never any question but that these paranormal phenomenons are actually taking place. What's the point of having a story of belief vs. skepticism if the belief is never questioned and the skeptic is never right?
It seemed to me that Scully was given no other function in the show other than just to be wrong every week. The X-Files: I Want To Believe carries on in this unfortunate tradition. In fact of all the characters and plot points, Scully's is the most out of place here. In the beginning she approaches Mulder and convinces him to come and work on the case, and then proceeds to try and talk him out of it for the rest of the film. She has her usual "You're wrong" banter with him every chance she gets, but with so much inappropriate passion you'd think Mulder would die if he didn't get off the case.
Moreover her skepticism and hostility towards the priest seemed to serve no purpose but to clue her into the fact that he is the real deal. As a matter of fact, there is never really much doubt but that the priest is the real deal, a little maybe, but not much. Certainly not enough to make his purpose in the film very interesting.
What I did find interesting was the fact that the usual X-Files formula was somewhat reversed in this story. The actual case its self (involving various victims being used in illegal experimentation) was in no way supernatural. The supernatural elements of this story were on the case solving side. The psychic ex-priest is in a way an excellent metaphor for the dilemmas that are presented in this film; to keep the faith or to give it up, to believe or not to believe.
ReplyDeleteAs for the case its self, it managed to make me do something that I am almost never able to do in any X-Files story; take the case seriously. The antagonists in this film are not evil or maniacal; they care only about their work, their ambitions, and they treat their victims worse than badly; they treat them like they're nothing. Rather than go for the shock horror treatment we almost always got in the series, I Want To Believe creates an atmosphere of eeriness that actually got my attention. Almost too much so in the last half; in fact that's where it got a little weird for me. It almost turned into a mad slasher film in the end.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe was good enough for me to recommend, but unlike Fight the Future, it suffers from a lot of problems I felt the series always had. I liked the film, but this time that liking comes with absolutely no enthusiasm.