Review: ‘The X-Files, I Want to Believe’

Ram Man:

It has been 6 years since Chris carter’s hit show “The X Files has been on television. So he chose now to see if there is still an audience out there by  debuting  his new film “X-Files: I Want To Believe”. Carter reunites David Duchovney and Gillian Anderson as former FBI agents Scully and Mulder and tell the story of what happened after they were run out of Washington D.C. There are some new faces with Amanda Peet and Rap star X-Zibit (fitting actor for X-Files) as FBI agents in need of a paranormal expert to assist in a current investigation.

We start out in the mountains of West Virgina, where a FBI agent is abducted. The bureau enlist a convicted pedophile Father Joseph Crissman, who happens to be a psychic, to help find their agent. Lead investigators Drummy (XZibit) and Whitney (Peet) believe Father Joe has hit a wall and seek out the assistance of The FBI’s authority on the paranormal Fox Mulder. Working through his live in girlfriend Dr. Dana Scully they manage to track down Fox who had fallen of the bureau’s radar. They work out a deal to forgive his past if he will help with this case. Mulder begrudgingly agrees and the team is back…or at least thats what we thought. Scully informs Mulder that she is a doctor and has left the life behind her. X-Files normally turns  in a paranormal twist on crime, but “I Want To Believe” turns out to be a simple serial abduction case. These Russians (isn’t it always the Russians) experts in stem cell surgery Janke Dacyshyn  has been  abducting people and harvesting thier  bodies  to keep his lover Franz Tomczeszyn  alive. Unlike the hit TV show there are no twists and you know who did what and why half way through this film.

I went to the “X-Files: I Want To Believe” wanting To Believe it was going to be an enjoyable blast from the past, but instead, X-Files closed up shop when Mulder and Scully were kick out and this ranks like a long last season below average episode from the TV series. This movie lacks some familiar faces that would have transitioned it into a fine feature. Mitch Peliggi shows up at the end of the film as Asst. Director Skinner (to the only crowd response in the film), why not have him show up  earlier in the film to renew his relationship with Sculley and Mulder. I was a big X-Files fan, and for me, there was a notable absence of the trio of trouble, the Lone Gunmen. These small changes and a little better writing could have put a entirely different spin on this franchises attempted comeback. X-Files: I Want To Believe …I Believe Duchovney is heading back to Californication and Anderson will slip back into obscurity. X-Files   are simply put:  CASE CLOSED!

(1.5 out of 5 stars)

Travis:

I’m going to come right out and say it … ‘X-Files 2’ was one of, if not the biggest let down of the year for me. Seriously though, I was realistic enough going into the screening to know that it wasn’t going to be great, but it failed at even being acceptable. I was never what you’d call an ‘X-Files’ fanboy, but I did really enjoy the TV series and watched regularly. I still think its one of the best shows that’s seen the light of picture tubes in the last 20 years. With that said, I also firmly believe the ‘X-Files’ should never have hit the big screen to begin with. The first movie was better than its follow-up, but it was a far cry from being worth the risk as well.

‘X-Files: I Want to Believe’ failed tremendously in making me believe, and while I wanted to believe it could revive Chris Carter’s creation, I now feel once more like I’ve been forsaken. This movie is less of a sequel than it is another feature-length episode of the TV series. An episode that is long and not very entertaining, ranking somewhere between poor and mediocre on a scale of favorite episodes. David Duchovny is certainly still Fox Mulder, but the time he’s spent away from the show that lifted him out of ‘Red Shoe Diaries’ and into mainstream success has taken its tole on his ability to connect with the character. Gillian Anderson also returns as Dr. Dana Scully, who now practices medicine in a small, church-run hospital. Ironic indeed, for the habitually persistent non-believer. Neither Mulder or Scully work for the FBI in this film, both of whom seem to have swapped ideologies slightly, when the FBI calls on Scully to bring Mulder out of hiding to help find a missing agent. Apparently, the backstory to be filled in suggests the FBI framed Mulder who is now a fugitive… oh yeah, and apparently sometime between this movie and the last, Mulder and Scully had quite a thing going on, or so the extrapolated dialogue would indicate.

I will say I managed to stay awake through the entire film, but there were a couple of rough points. Some of the movie was engaging and Mulder was humorously sarcastic as always, but much of the film felt old hat, repetitive of elements already done to death and a completely unsatisfying romance subplot between the former partners that barely gets off the ground and then goes nowhere, except in the general direction of a truly lousy, uncharacteristic ending. By the way, no aliens or creepy unexplained creatures or phenomena here … just a few missing persons, a dying boy, a psychic “priest” and a couple of freaky Russians who were mistaken and thought they were in ‘Brokeback Mountain’. The “truth is out there” element is extremely weak in this film and the anticlimactic climax to the unsuspenseful suspense is, well… you get the point. On a positive note, the “priest” was played well by Billy Connelly (Boondock Saints), a Scottish actor whom I enjoy but unfortunately see very little of anymore.

(2 out of 5 stars)

Michelle:

I wanted to believe that 20^thCentury Fox set out to make a serious, paranormal sequel, however the incoherent  mess they ended up with was just a 2 part episode to the popular t.v. show. And man, did I want to change the channel. The film begins with Mulder and Fox, no longer F.B.I. agents, quickly brought back into the fold  to help  solve  the disappearance of an fellow agent.  I couldn’t help but notice that from then on, the story  takes  unadulterated pot shots at Catholicism…Fox’s only clue to the missing FBI agent is a “psychic,” defrocked, pedophile priest (Billy Connelly), Scully, now a doctor  working at a Catholic hospital, is at odds with its director, an unsympathetic Catholic priest, who wants nothing to do with Scully using, of course, stem cell therapy to save her dying patient. To top it off, the surgery is overlooked by 3, frowning nuns.  By that time, I was  confused  why director and creator Chris Carter had us playing connect-the-dots…are we watching a  love story? a serial-killer story? a supernatural thriller?…good God man, make up your mind! With the addition of two forgettable agents played by Xzibit and Amanda Peet, die-hard fans will appreciate the brief scene with Mitch Pileggi’s Assistant Director Walter Skinner. While  I have no doubt that loyal X-Philes fans, as they’re known,  will be drooling over the sequel, the plain out bizarreness rates a 10 on the sphincter scale.

(1 out of 5 stars)

[rating: 1.5/5]