The TV Addict 

There were many people – fans and non fans – who questioned the sense of making an X-FILES film six years after the show had whimpered to an end. Who would have suspected that the best argument against the idea would end up being the film itself?

Forsaking objectivity for a moment, and indulging the part of me that was a huge X-Phile until Season Six, perhaps the greatest offense X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE makes – except for a few cute inside jokes for fans – is that that it doesn’t even remotely feel like the “X-Files.” Except for the involvement of an amateur psychic, there’s nothing here that would have even garnered the interest of Fox Mulder on the show, despite the film’s silly and tenuous suggestion it’s because of his feelings over his deceased sister (by that account, he should take on every and any missing persons case involving young women). Admittedly the case does prove to be sort of “X-Files” like, but what’s actually going on is revealed so late in the game that it’s far too late. Throw in the fact that even though Scully via a good Anderson (who is more gorgeous now, if that’s possible) performance is still her usual self, Mulder seems off (as if Duchovny’s heart wasn’t quite in it) as does the relationship between him and Scully. Coupled with the passing of time it’s like Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz were so intent on making this as widely appealable as possible, that they lost their feel for the characters and what made the TV show so good in the first place.

Turning objectivity back on, this film is no different than any other sort of creepy horror film out there, except it’s not scary, it’s too talky, and – well – just not very good. There’s no real tension to the events, and somehow when bad things happen, you’ll find yourself hard pressed to care because of the rampant underdevelopment going on in the film. That’s particularly strange because the film is extremely and indulgently heavy on drama and its theme of belief. It’s something you would think would make it deeper, but except for Scully’s hospital storyline none of it really goes anywhere and is nowhere nearly as developed as the filmmaker think (especially Mulder’s storyline).

That’s especially clear when halfway through the film Mulder and Scully have a conversation in a locker room where you can tell by the way it’s written and directed that the filmmakers thought it to be an incredibly important, pivotal moment. The problem is the film hasn’t even begun to adequately set up the elements enough to get you to appreciate the stakes, let alone care. It’s even harder to when after the conversation nothing really changes.

In the end that’s probably the film’s biggest problems. It’s as if the filmmakers believed too much, filling in a massive void jump between what was actually in the script/film and what they believed to be in the script/film. It’s unfortunate then that audiences are faced with the regrettable task of having to deal with that discrepancy. All the more so if you’re an “X-Files” fan.

Overall rating: C