X-Files: I Want to Believe ; Review

Chris Carter’s writing style really hasn’t changed all that much. He writes for television, and his movies definitely reflect that experience: low budget, and stick to the formula. In summer science fiction blockbusters, the main antagonists are usually huge insurmountable objects of force, such as civilization threatening objects with lots of energy to blow up cities and monuments (more, please), overly ambitious oceans, zombie armies and the like, whereas in Carter’s stories, the bad forces are much more subtle, easily covered up, and as visual experiences, less memorable. Carter always wrote the first and last episodes of an X-Files season, so when watching this movie, that is definitely the impression you will get–you will feel you are watching either the close or an opening of a new season. But honestly, as long as you go into the theater knowing this, you more than likely won’t mind at all. This one is the equivalent of 2 new episodes, so enjoy.

The draw of the X-Files is and always has been Fox Mulder. Without Mulder the show just didn’t have the same addictive nature. Scully obviously couldn’t carry the series, as her character always came across as relatively tearful and miserable which made her difficult to watch– especially in Carter’s episodes who seemed to think that this made the series touching. It didn’t, because not only did she cry all the time, she was always wrong. On top of that, throwing in a Terminator didn’t help. Throwing in a jackass head of the FBI didn’t help. Throwing in a jackass son of The Smoking Man didn’t help. Getting rid of Mr. X. didn’t help. Making Scully cry more didn’t help. All of these changes just made the series less watchable. In all honestly, they should have slowly added more believers into the mix to support Mulder, not less. It would have given you the hope that Mulder would win the respect that was due to him, and given mankind the hope that they can overcome oppression. To me, that’s why the series faltered because without doing so, there could be no end other than the elimination of Mulder and the termination of the X-Files and the ushering in of the slave state. Make everyone on the planet believe, goddammit! Mulder was always right, anyway. They should have gone out with a bang by creating a definitive ending. It’s not like you couldn’t go back and retell stories in other periods of time like George Lucas seems to be doing over and over again with Star Wars.

As any true fan will tell you, Vince Gilligan should have written this movie, but apparently he got stuck rewriting Hancock a thousand times, which suffered not only from being rewritten but also suffered from an ending that had to be refilmed a month before release. Yikes. Sorry, man. We love your work and know you’re not responsible for the destruction of your drunken superhero. If you had hooked up with Chris Carter he would have respected you. And Chris, if you’re given the go ahead to do the next X-Files movie about the Mayan Calendar and the world ending in 2012, have Vince write it! He knows your characters and your fan base better than you do. And if you cannot get the money to make the movie, just do your low budget producing and make Sci-Fi specials. I think I speak for many in saying that periodic low budget made-for-TV X-Files movies would be just fine and would make you enough money and satisfy fans without over-saturating them. It seems to be working with Battlestar. Why not do it for X-Files?

I’m not going to spoil anything for you by breaking down the plot (what would be the point? Just go see it), but I am going to tell you that despite my trash talk, there are quite a few clever elements to the storytelling that kept me and my wife talking for a few hours after the credits rolled. Go see it as you definitely will if you are a fan, pay attention, and post what you liked about the movie, did not like about the movie, as well as any references and themes you noticed in the movie by using the comment form below.