Don't Give Up
URGA MOTW
The X-Files : I Want To Believe
I used to love The X-Files. During the late 90's, it was my favourite show, and it was one of the first TV shows that I heavily got into the fandom of - I wrote reviews, bought videos and books related to it, chatted with other fans on usenet's aus.tv.x-files and IRC. Heck, I even wrote one piece of fan fiction that I'm still quite happy with. And we mustn't forget NatGat[1]. But some time after season 5, the show started to get more and more mediocre. I even didn't watch most of the final two seasons (8 & 9) after David Duchovny left, because the show was just not the same. In fact, those last few years disillusioned me so much I never bothered to buy the DVDs, not even of the first three seasons which have a lot of brilliant episodes in them.
So why did we bother with this new movie? Who knows?
Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz have tried to revive their franchise, but they've done in a very curious way. This movie is not all that epic, it doesn't really bring back the "old" Mulder and Scully, and both Duchovny and Anderson seem almost that they don't want to be there. The plot itself could have been a somewhat decent episode plot many years ago, but the way it's been executed and stretched out to force Mulder and Scully into it makes the whole thing drag and feel rather disappointing.
A divergent subplot about Scully's struggle between faith and science comes off as a bit of preaching against the Catholic church and pro-stem cell research, which is not at all delicately handled. Having some sort of "morality" play into the story could have worked, but we don't need the writers shoving their opinions down our throat - a smarter move would be to present all points of view (from various characters) but leave the audience to decide for themselves which they think is right.
Not much happens for the first hour, and when the "big crime" is revealed, it seems still pretty ordinary and not supernatural, if you discount psychic paedophile priest Father Joe (Billy Connolly) as a fraud... which at this point of the story, is pretty likely. When we near the climax, the actual supernatural element becomes a little more clear, but even then, it's not all that exciting. There's even very little action - a few car crashes, and a chase through a building under construction - but not much else. It's like Duchovny may have had something in his contract that said "no fist fights" - because that may have made it at least a little more interesting to watch.
So in the end, the whole thing is a bland, pointless mess. It's not X-Filesy at all, and not at all scary. It's not even a big fanwank fest as an excuse to pull the "old team" back together for one last hurrah.
That being said, it wasn't actually a terrible film. It just didn't have much going for it at all. If Carter and Spotnitz had taken this plot, tightened it a bit and written it as a completely different movie not at all connected with The X-Files, it could have worked much better. Mulder and Scully's story was done to death in the series and was resolved (somewhat) in the final episode. They didn't need another outing, and if they had one, it could have been so much better than this...
4/10
[1] NatGat - The aus.tv.x-files National Gathering, ran annually from 1998 until 2002, in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra. I attended all except the Canberra one. We were just a group of people who shared an interest in The X-Files and had participated in the newsgroup coming up with a fan community and a lot of our own traditions. Of course, by the time NatGat began and we all met in person together, the show had already begun to suck and so enthusiasm for the show that brought us together waned, and we just got together for the fun of it. Lost contact with a lot of those guys now, but oh well.
The X-Files : I Want To Believe
I used to love The X-Files. During the late 90's, it was my favourite show, and it was one of the first TV shows that I heavily got into the fandom of - I wrote reviews, bought videos and books related to it, chatted with other fans on usenet's aus.tv.x-files and IRC. Heck, I even wrote one piece of fan fiction that I'm still quite happy with. And we mustn't forget NatGat[1]. But some time after season 5, the show started to get more and more mediocre. I even didn't watch most of the final two seasons (8 & 9) after David Duchovny left, because the show was just not the same. In fact, those last few years disillusioned me so much I never bothered to buy the DVDs, not even of the first three seasons which have a lot of brilliant episodes in them.
So why did we bother with this new movie? Who knows?
Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz have tried to revive their franchise, but they've done in a very curious way. This movie is not all that epic, it doesn't really bring back the "old" Mulder and Scully, and both Duchovny and Anderson seem almost that they don't want to be there. The plot itself could have been a somewhat decent episode plot many years ago, but the way it's been executed and stretched out to force Mulder and Scully into it makes the whole thing drag and feel rather disappointing.
A divergent subplot about Scully's struggle between faith and science comes off as a bit of preaching against the Catholic church and pro-stem cell research, which is not at all delicately handled. Having some sort of "morality" play into the story could have worked, but we don't need the writers shoving their opinions down our throat - a smarter move would be to present all points of view (from various characters) but leave the audience to decide for themselves which they think is right.
Not much happens for the first hour, and when the "big crime" is revealed, it seems still pretty ordinary and not supernatural, if you discount psychic paedophile priest Father Joe (Billy Connolly) as a fraud... which at this point of the story, is pretty likely. When we near the climax, the actual supernatural element becomes a little more clear, but even then, it's not all that exciting. There's even very little action - a few car crashes, and a chase through a building under construction - but not much else. It's like Duchovny may have had something in his contract that said "no fist fights" - because that may have made it at least a little more interesting to watch.
So in the end, the whole thing is a bland, pointless mess. It's not X-Filesy at all, and not at all scary. It's not even a big fanwank fest as an excuse to pull the "old team" back together for one last hurrah.
That being said, it wasn't actually a terrible film. It just didn't have much going for it at all. If Carter and Spotnitz had taken this plot, tightened it a bit and written it as a completely different movie not at all connected with The X-Files, it could have worked much better. Mulder and Scully's story was done to death in the series and was resolved (somewhat) in the final episode. They didn't need another outing, and if they had one, it could have been so much better than this...
4/10
[1] NatGat - The aus.tv.x-files National Gathering, ran annually from 1998 until 2002, in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra. I attended all except the Canberra one. We were just a group of people who shared an interest in The X-Files and had participated in the newsgroup coming up with a fan community and a lot of our own traditions. Of course, by the time NatGat began and we all met in person together, the show had already begun to suck and so enthusiasm for the show that brought us together waned, and we just got together for the fun of it. Lost contact with a lot of those guys now, but oh well.