philosophy and metaphor in XF2
caution; spoilerish.
i'm with Ebert on this, having just read his review. What i liked about this flick was what i loved about Wall-E; not perfect by any means, but warm and intimate.
I have been hungering for a movie with heart and without CGI for a while now (or in Wall-E's case, no explosions or summer movie 'tricks', since that entire thing was CGI); but XF2 made me happy because it is the first movie i've seen in a LOOONG time that didn't sell itself on explosions and computer art. I'm willing to forgive a hackneyed villain-plot for this; because IMO, we the moviegoing public and they the movie-makers have become WAY too dependent on those 'tricks' to sell their product and to digest it.
I've been missing thist sort of movie a lot. i LIKED that it felt 'small', because to me it felt...intimate; and that felt GOOD for a change. To me, too many big movies with too many effects leave me feeling distant from the thing.
this was a movie that took all the best themes from the show and riffed on them beautifully; a movie about complex characters struggling their way out of ennui; with those good and never-ending themes of faith and belief and disbelief and what they make us see. It was a paean on the true philosophical meaning of the show over the years that felt right at home to me, and yet still challenging; because to me, those questions never cease to interest, and for me, XF has always been far more a cerebral exercise than a summer-movie type phenom. IMO, that's what made it GOOD.
the only thing in which i don't agree with Ebert is in his take on Scully's medical case, which to me is again an interesting riff on the old religion vs science vs how much is too much theme, which to me, as i said, will ever be fertile ground. I personally think that her case was another metaphor; Mulder was atropying. Scully saw it, and so though she feared what it would do, still she brought him new material, the embryonic tissue or stem cells of his (really, their) faith, the core materia primoris of what drives him (them), in order to to rejuvinate his brilliant mind and remind it how to heal itself; which is just what stem cells are meant to do, btw). Mulder's brain--and if she was willing to face it, Scully's too--were rotting in stasis without new challenges to outdated beliefs. With this new infusion, this forcible reentry to the ever-changeable world they once inhabited that kept them alive, they are brought back, given a chance to reboot.
Then of course, like with the operations Scully was performing on the boy, she began to fear and retreat from the challenges that that infusion brought them. Change scares us all...but in her way she was rotting as much as Mulder was, and needed the infusion as badly. That was but one infusion; but it paved the way for a series of further 'treatments' to bring them back.
now they have the chance to live again, rejuvenated; not by frankensteinish means, just cutting off parts and sewing them on whether they fit or not...but by starting from the core, from what always MATTERED...and rebuilding all over again.
i'm with Ebert on this, having just read his review. What i liked about this flick was what i loved about Wall-E; not perfect by any means, but warm and intimate.
I have been hungering for a movie with heart and without CGI for a while now (or in Wall-E's case, no explosions or summer movie 'tricks', since that entire thing was CGI); but XF2 made me happy because it is the first movie i've seen in a LOOONG time that didn't sell itself on explosions and computer art. I'm willing to forgive a hackneyed villain-plot for this; because IMO, we the moviegoing public and they the movie-makers have become WAY too dependent on those 'tricks' to sell their product and to digest it.
I've been missing thist sort of movie a lot. i LIKED that it felt 'small', because to me it felt...intimate; and that felt GOOD for a change. To me, too many big movies with too many effects leave me feeling distant from the thing.
this was a movie that took all the best themes from the show and riffed on them beautifully; a movie about complex characters struggling their way out of ennui; with those good and never-ending themes of faith and belief and disbelief and what they make us see. It was a paean on the true philosophical meaning of the show over the years that felt right at home to me, and yet still challenging; because to me, those questions never cease to interest, and for me, XF has always been far more a cerebral exercise than a summer-movie type phenom. IMO, that's what made it GOOD.
the only thing in which i don't agree with Ebert is in his take on Scully's medical case, which to me is again an interesting riff on the old religion vs science vs how much is too much theme, which to me, as i said, will ever be fertile ground. I personally think that her case was another metaphor; Mulder was atropying. Scully saw it, and so though she feared what it would do, still she brought him new material, the embryonic tissue or stem cells of his (really, their) faith, the core materia primoris of what drives him (them), in order to to rejuvinate his brilliant mind and remind it how to heal itself; which is just what stem cells are meant to do, btw). Mulder's brain--and if she was willing to face it, Scully's too--were rotting in stasis without new challenges to outdated beliefs. With this new infusion, this forcible reentry to the ever-changeable world they once inhabited that kept them alive, they are brought back, given a chance to reboot.
Then of course, like with the operations Scully was performing on the boy, she began to fear and retreat from the challenges that that infusion brought them. Change scares us all...but in her way she was rotting as much as Mulder was, and needed the infusion as badly. That was but one infusion; but it paved the way for a series of further 'treatments' to bring them back.
now they have the chance to live again, rejuvenated; not by frankensteinish means, just cutting off parts and sewing them on whether they fit or not...but by starting from the core, from what always MATTERED...and rebuilding all over again.