"The X-Files: I Want to Believe" Review - Written by Freelance

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Director: Chris Carter
Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Xzibit, and Billy Connolly
MPAA: PG-13

Freelance rating: ** out of *****

There is a strong sense of creativity and astonishment made for science fiction today In the same light as Heroes, (the late) Firefly, and even Lost, this spectrum would’ve never been seen if it wasn’t for a certain show of the mid -Nineties. The award winning, The X-Files. The X-Files was a new breed of suspenseful Sci-fi when it debuted back in 1993.

In between its nine season run, a movie based on the show was released in 1998. X-Files: Fight the Future was spine-tinglingly gorgeous. No one had to be a major Sci-fi nerd to enjoy the movie. A comprehension of the show was not even necessary. The film even pushed some edges with a massive explosion of a federal building, which closely resembled the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Fight the Future was a very enjoyable Sci-fi shocker and stood well by itself.

2008, it is now six years after the end of the series. Show creator, Chris Carter has put together the second film based off of his highly acclaimed show. In slight bewilderment after coming out of the theatre of this one. I asked myself, “What the hell was the point of making this?”

X-Files: I Want to Believe begins the same number of years it has been off the air from Fox. The film never explains much of the show’s concept, but does not give enough explanation of where it left off six years ago. There almost should have been a greedy sales/disclaimer before watching this movie. *Recap all of the information from this show by purchasing seasons 1-9 on DVD at your local Best Buy, for only $49.99* Carter states that he created this as a stand alone storyline to the show series. Unfortunately, I beg to differ.

Not wasting any time, the plot explodes with a police led hunt through a rural frozen West Virginian country side. Agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) and Agent Mosley Drummy (Xzibit) have hired the supposedly psychic, Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly). Missing town folks have the FBI searching for leads while using Crissman as the detector(this is slightly confusing find a way to make it one sentence). Looking for a better option than the scatter brain psychic, former agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are called back into the field. Mulder, who still believes in paranormal activity, spends his days in crazed-loner seclusion scrambling through newspapers. Scully, on the other hand, has gone back to her roots with medicine and is a doctor at a children’s hospital. The paranormal duo have teamed up again to locate what’s causing locals missing from the small towns of West Virginia. This venture will take all of their power to solve and it will lead them to a horrifically twisted conclusion.

I’m not going to try and pretend that I am a huge nerdy fan of the show. I watched quite a few of the episodes, and I really liked the first movie, though most of my time through the mid-nineties was spent playing Mega Man and watching light hearted Chris Farley comedies. Even with my lack of major knowledge of the series I can still pick out what I did and did not enjoy about this film.

I’m not too sure what exactly made this film unlikeable for me. Was it the fact that the director of Electra was not part of it? And that films blows. Could it have been the acting oddity of Billy Connolly and Xzibit? Maybe. I think what struck me the most was how boring the plot development was for the movie. After six years of being away from the series, is this really the best that Carter and co-writer Frank Spotnitz could create? Don’t get me wrong, I really think they can write, but this was such a weak moist towelette in comparison of the “juicy BBQ sauce stain on my shirt” show. I also noticed the lack of big-budget-production compared to the first movie. Except for one scene towards the end of the film, this could have easily been done under an indie production team. I really can’t complain about this since I really hate seeing the Michael Bay bullshit in movies today.

A small thing that bugged me about the movie was the odd sight gags. Like having the show theme play when focusing on a photo of George W. Bush. True, I think Bush is possibly a weird alien from some drunken college frat-boy planet. Or behind some scheme for drunken frat aliens…
“D to the P, let's go, I got the munchies.”

The few things I thought worked in this second film were Duchovny and Anderson. Except for her way too small role in The Last King of Scotland, I have no idea why Anderson isn‘t seen more in films. For a Sci-fi flick the two of them have a wonderful on-screen chemistry that work on the same level as Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. The moments of interaction between these two were the few that kept me compelled to the story.

Final point. This attempt by Chris Carter comes off as a deaf realization of a mundane movie development. Even worse than that, is how well this will be received with the true fans of the show. I can not recommend The X-Files: I Want To Believe as a must to watch for the summer. If any thing it will be blinded by the scorching fire of much bigger blockbusters.