The X-Files: I Want to Believe

[ElPandaRoyal]

Not a big fan of the show (not that I didn't like it, I just didn't get to see a lot, since here in Portugal it aired at about midnight when I was 11 or 12 years old and needed to get to bed) and not a fan of the movie either. The story has some good elements in it (faith, belief, etc...) but really poorly exploited. And there are scenes and little moments that were so out of place, and just took me out of it (spoilers: the picture of Bush and the x-files theme playing... now that was subtle  ). I don't know... I thought maybe real fans would love it, but that doesn't seem to be the case, and that's a shame.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I look forward to what other X-Philes on these boards think.

I think I qualify. MacGuffin is also a fan. I'd like to know what he thinks, if he has the misfortune of seeing this film. Oh, also, check out this thread for general X-Files discussion and favorite episode lists.

I suppose I should explain what kind of an X-Files fan I am. I'm not even sure if "fan" is the right word. (The only thing I've ever been a hardcore fan of, in the stereotypical sense of the word, is Magnolia.) I've seen every episode, and while I loved them enough to faithfully go through all nine seasons on DVD, I certainly didn't love all of them.

There are a few things about the X-Files that have always annoyed me, or which I've never been entirely comfortable with. These include:

1. episodes in which Mulder and Scully investigate a serial killer and must find the missing girl before she dies
2. trying to scare us with various Satanic phenomena while actually taking it seriously
3. exploring Scully's religious beliefs
4. the overt Mulder/Scully romance

I'm pretty sure most of the episodes I disliked involved one or more of these things. This movie achieved a solid 3 out of 4. Just to explain, I should expand on them.

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!

1. The serial killer episodes (aside from the obvious interesting ones, like Pusher) are far too formulaic for a show that was about breaking formulas. They do nothing for me. The worst thing about them was that the kidnapped person is rescued just before she's killed, which happens in this movie twice in rapid succession with Mulder and the girl in the ice bath.

2. Satanic crap only works for you if you believe in it. Which is why it doesn't work for me. And if it does work for you, you might be a sick person and probably need to get over your fear of and belief in Satan. Period. And stop watching stupid television episodes that reinforce your superstitions.

3. Scully's religious beliefs are sometimes contradicted by her rationality, which causes internal conflict. That's it. This could have been started and ended in one episode. There's not much substance there. To bring it back in a feature-length film and recycle all the old material that wasn't good in the first place is an insult to our intelligence.

4. Chris Carter once promised to never bring Mulder and Scully together in a conventional romance, insisting that their relationship was meant to stay as a quasi-professional collaboration, and that an overt romance would deflate their ongoing sexual tension that was essential to the show. I agree. And yet I somehow accepted what happened in "The Truth," probably because there was enough ambiguity. I suppose it makes sense where their relationship is today, but I'm definitely less comfortable with it after seeing this movie.

[SiliasRuby]

I look forward to what other X-Philes on these boards think.

I think I qualify. MacGuffin is also a fan.

I'm a fan too, and I'm rewatching the series now, going through season one as I speak. Haven't seen season 6-9 yet....So sad that this film is getting bashed but I'm optimistic after reading Jeremy's review without the spoilers.

[I Love a Magician]

as a fan of the show i left the movie pretty disappointed. like jeremy blackman, a lot of the stuff that i don't like about the show (faith mostly) was central to the movie. this wouldn't have bothered me much if the movie was more entertaining but as it is, it just held my attention. i didn't care about anything in the movie - the plot, the victims, the little boy - and the only thing that kept me paying attention was my past interest in mulder and scully. movie looked really good in certain spots too.

4/10

[MacGuffin]

I was not very hyped for this film, so my expectations were low, and it ended up being better than expected. However, it didn't feel entirely a part of the series. At its best, the film recaptures the relationship between Mulder and Scully, and by that, I mean their working relationship (I was one of those fans that wanted them to stay plutonic), and I liked seeing them picking up where they left off. Their scenes together were nicely written and acted; even in an argument, they felt like a real couple trying to be supportive and yet sticking with what they believe. The MacGuffin of the story left me wanting more; it didn't feel like an X-File type case, and the psychic was the only element of 'unexplained phenomena.' Not to mention that our two leads were given mainly observer roles, taking back seats to Xhibit and Peet's (both miscast) agents. I was excited with Mulder as he started to get the feeling again, and really wanted him to take more of a lead, but by that time it was too late into the film.

[I Love a Magician]

also what the fuck was up with the shot of g.w. bush portrait with the x-files theme?

[Weird. Oh]

very big fan of the show rewatching entire series right now. Just starting season 3. Haven't seen the movie yet but will in the next few days.

[Weird. Oh]

Actually an interesting thing I have to mention/ask as I was watching season 2 there is an episode called "Die Hand Die Verletzt" about satanists. The funny thing is there a scene where it rains frogs on murder and scully. So is this original or was this done in other shows/films as well? The only reason I think it is funny is obviously because of Magnolia.

[SiliasRuby]

Actually an interesting thing I have to mention/ask as I was watching season 2 there is an episode called "Die Hand Die Verletzt" about satanists. The funny thing is there a scene where it rains frogs on murder and scully. So is this original or was this done in other shows/films as well? The only reason I think it is funny is obviously because of Magnolia.

I thought they might have done it on an old episode of the twilight zone, finished that episode earlier last night also...

[MacGuffin]

Exclusive: Carter Already Planning X-Files 3
Show creator eyeing alien invasion story.

IGN caught up with X-Files creator Chris Carter this week to talk about I Want to Believe, and the director/writer/producer was keen on talking up the prospects of further movie instalments.

He began by saying: "We had really good fun doing this movie -- we have high hopes for it and we just want people to like it. If people do want to come and see it we'll certainly be talking about another movie."

We asked him about abandoning the shows alien-heavy mythology for Believe, and if he would return to this long-running narrative it the future.

"We love the alien storyline too, but we felt coming back this time -- when a story like this was not only true to the series but allows us to focus on Mulder and Scully more, you don't have to deal with all the complications in the alien storyline. But if there were to be more films -- and we're not at all taking it for granted that there will be -- but if there were that's something we would definitely want to get back too..."

Carter continued: "There's a date in the X-Files mythology -- 2012 -- that is very important. We'd certainly love to do something with that!"

He's referring to December 22, 2012, which is referenced in several episodes and marks the date of the alien invasion and colonisation of Earth.

[MacGuffin]

Duchovny Still Believes In X-Files
Source: Sci Fi Wire

The X-Files: I Want To Believe didn't do blockbuster box office, but star David Duchovny still wants to revisit the role of former FBI agent Fox Mulder, whom he refers to as "mine." He adds that he wants to believe that The X-Files could live on in a spinoff TV series.

The movie--the second based on the long-running Fox TV series--is out now on DVD, and it is hoped it finds the audience that eluded it in movie theaters over the summer.

That includes Duchovny himself, who confessed that he never saw the film on a big screen. "It's not a special-effects movie," he says. "It kind of was coming out in a time when you expected it to be--in the summer. To me, it was more a fall movie."

Duchovny adds: "It's a beautiful-looking movie. The location, the glow of the snow and the eeriness of that part of it, I think that looks great on the big screen. Everything looks better on the big screen, but I think that, yeah, it's less of a popcorn movie than it is a fall movie, ... for lack of a better term."

Duchovny, who is undeniably an SF icon, says that he's not looking for any more fantastical roles. "I don't feel a need to score in any sci-fi movie or television show for the rest of my life," he says. "I think that we can check that one off for me. But I don't choose genres. I choose characters, so I would never rule out a science fiction movie just because it was the genre. If it had a character or a story that I thought was really interesting, I would do it."

As for The X-Files, Duchovny says, "I never thought of The X-Files as science fiction. I always thought of it as playing this character in this world. The world was recognizable to me. It wasn't The Jetsons. It was present time. You couldn't fly. You couldn't transport our bodies over a teleport and all that stuff, so it was the real world, and it didn't feel like sci-fi to me." Following is an edited version of the rest of SCI FI Wire's interview with Duchovny.

Do you suppose that the Fox Mulder character could somehow endure along the lines of a Sherlock Holmes or a James Bond? Do you think that other actors could play him, and how would you like to see him go in the future?

Duchovny: I'm sure that someone else could play him, but I'd like to play him for a little while longer. I certainly think it's a pretty good idea to try to make another X-Files-oriented show on television. I wouldn't be an actor in it, but I've always thought it was a great plan. But I would like to continue on as a movie serial. As far as what actors ... I'm not ready to go out to pasture just yet.

What is it about Mulder that keeps you coming back?

Duchovny: He's mine. I feel protective of him and of it and of all of us. It was the first real, real success of my career and will always be a cornerstone of my life in many ways, the creative endeavor it is. I feel protective of the character and of the show in many ways, and I'm proud of it. I think that it can expand and grow, and .. I find that we have bonds.

I guess Indiana Jones gets aged, but it remains the same movie even though he's aging. Bond doesn't age, and I find that a little less interesting, at least for me. I'm not just saying this because I would like to keep doing it, but I always talk to [X-Files creator] Chris [Carter] about how fascinating today it would be to take this guy from his early 30s and let's take him into his mid-50s, late 50s. Maybe nobody wants to see 60-year-old Fox Mulder, but we can grow him. We can take him through life's hardships and changes. It doesn't have to be this cartoon where nothing changes. You can actually form the flow of this movie and the expanse of this show to embrace actual passage of time and what that does to a person and relationships. To me, that's interesting as an actor and as a person. As an intellectually based character, you don't give a damn what he looks like.

Since The X-Files: I Want to Believe may not have been the huge blockbuster that everyone was hoping for, we'd like to know: What is your own measure of success for the movie?

Duchovny: I guess it's always the first time I see the movie. What's my feeling when I come out? I always felt like the subject matter of this particular movie was limiting. It was dark, and it wasn't going. I mean, it could always bust out and become something huge, but as you recall, Batman was just suffocating everything at the time. Even so, it was also a $29.9 million movie competing during the summer. It had some stuff going against it in terms of me thinking it was going to break out. I didn't think that it actually would. It was very dark. The subject matter was limiting in that way. Even though I would hope any movie I do would do the best business it can, that was never going to be a measure of this particular film.

I've only seen it one time, and I was sitting in Chris' editing room. I watched it on a little screen. I guess I missed the chance to see it on the big screen, and that's too bad, but when I left that initial screening at Chris' house, the film was pretty much almost done except for some special effects. I just felt like it was really strong and kind of a strangely moving piece of work. Still dark, and still, I thought, limited, but the way that the movie performed did not surprise me so much, and I think that if we do get a chance to do another one ... what I always really liked about the show was that it had a dark vision, but at the heart of it being driven by Mulder was this real optimism or wonder or sense of belief, and then it would kind of open out. Most of the best shows that we did would open out into real wonder at the end, if only because you didn't have an answer, which was the mystery of it, but the wonder.

Mulder's quest, to me, is a very positive one. If we get a chance to do another one, I think because in this movie Mulder kept getting reinvigorated, Mulder was in a down place for much of this film; he wasn't driving the way he drives, the way he drove everything before that. In a way, the nature of how we had to get back into the show, which was to take the guy out of his job, also deprived the movie of some optimism and wonder and enlightenment that occurs when you've got this unhinged guy trying to prove wonderful crazy things.

[Sleepless]

For those disappointed by IWTB, this might entertain you. And it's got Robert Patrick!