New Review – X-Files: I Want To Believe

Roberto Parada original artwork for Mad Magazine.

Readers – let me introduce you to my new favorite person, Chad Larson, who remains devoted to seeing new movies when they come out, unlike me, the terrible Oxford Film Freak who keeps missing out on everything. So, Chad, thank you for this wonderful review and I hope you will be seeing more of his writing soon as he is another Oxford Film Freak. :>

By Chad Larson

True to the title, I wanted to believe that this movie would do justice to the phenomenon that was The X-Files. It’s been ten years since the first movie, “Fight the Future”, was released, and it’s been five since the show ended on a slump that it couldn’t fight its way out of when both main characters left the show for extended periods.

In the beginning, we see a young woman attacked in her home by a mysterious assailant, interspersed with images of an FBI team searching a snow covered field. A grisly discovery links these two scenes together, and leads in to the main storyline of the movie.

A missing FBI agent and a self-proclaimed psychic are the catalysts which bring Scully and Mulder back into the supernatural mysteries that they have finally moved away from.

This installment in the X-Files lore may well be the final one, but at the least it does provide a sense of closure to the characters and some much needed backstory as well. Many plot elements and exposition seem to be thrown in as pure fan service, harkening back to previous events as a reminder that this movie is, in fact, a part of the X-Files universe.

And I think that is where the main problem in this movie lies – remove Mulder and Scully, and replace with any other random characters, and it could be just another random summer mystery flick.

Certainly, the producers tried to distance themselves from the show’s alien mythology, but in the end they might have pushed themselves too far away from the core of what the X-Files is all about. Or maybe it’s just been too long since the X-Files was really relevant other than to hardcore fans.

There are also some misleading advertisements for this movie, featuring a few shots that are not even in the actual movie – one of which was presumably left out to keep the ending of the film vague.

If you were a major X-Files fan and can’t forgive yourself if you don’t go see this film, then by all means, head to your local theater. I can’t say that it wasn’t entertaining, it just wasn’t what I expected from a film that attempts to resurrect characters with such huge cult followings.

I’d give it a 3 out of 5 – go see it if you are a fan or have nothing better to see, otherwise wait for the DVD/Blu-Ray.