Joe Barber reviews “X-Files: I Want To Believe”
Ten years after he first tried his hand at transferring his wildly popular television series to the big screen, writer/director Chris Carter has delivered a second film based on “The X-Files.” Though this movie’s stated sub-title is I Want To Believe, a more accurate one might be I’d like a Coherent Story, Please.
A bit of background: The X-Files was a name given by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to a series of cases whose ultimate solutions seemed to touch on the supernatural and/or paranormal. Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) spent several season battling the offbeat villains and official skepticism and mistrust.
The 1998 film Fight The Future seemed to offer some fascinating clues to the series’ overarching mystery, a worldwide conspiracy involving humans and aliens. Unfortunately, the television series never picked up on the plot threads the movie left hanging and the series ended without a real resolution.
Picking up several years after the series’ conclusion, Believe finds Scully now practicing pediatric medicine in a Catholic hospital, while Mulder has become an embittered recluse, researching news stories about events that seem likely to be X-Files type cases.
When a female F.B.I. agent disappears and the only clue to her whereabouts is a defrocked priest who claims to be having visions, Scully and Mulder are asked to assist the investigation by a desperate senior agent. Their participation leads both to places they’d rather not-but must-go for the truth.
Carter, who co-wrote this sequel with longtime collaborator Frank Spotnitz, has given audiences a film will likely leave all but the most dedicated fans scratching their heads. The story seems rather ordinary when you consider it comes from two writers acclaimed for their imaginations and inventiveness.
Carter’s direction keeps things moving swiftly along, even getting you to jump in your seat now and then. The problem is that the plot seems to have no idea where it wants to go. The sometimes edgy and ironic humor that often enlivened the series is totally missing here and the revelatory crumbs dispensed about the Mulder/Sully relationship simply aren’t enough to drive the film.
Anderson and Duchovny still have solid chemistry together, but the underwritten script doesn’t make much use of it. Billy Connolly and Amanda Peet are quite effective as the psychic priest and senior agent, respectively.
While you are likely to leave this film with respect for the talents of the people who crafted it, you’re also likely to leave the theater with the same questions I had: First, who took the extraordinary out of The X-Files? Second: Will I care if it returns?
The X-Files: I Want To Believe is rated PG-13 for profanity, violence and sexual situations.
Joe’s Rating: Two Stars (**)
