Thanks to Netflix, I've recently gone through the series again, and remembered that the series spawned two feature films. I'd seen The X-Files (1998) a few times already, but like all sentient beings I completely ignored I Want to Believe (2008). Until now. In lieu of reviewing a drippy romance for Valentine's Day, I present a dual review of the X-Files films.
The X-Files (1998, Rob Bowman)
Released at the height of the TV series's popularity (if not quality), The X-Files (aka Fight the Future) was a major blockbuster event in 1998. Series creator Chris Carter and Co. engage in the Herculean labor of making the show's labrynthine, inscrutible "Mythology" comprehensible to lay viewers and newbies, resulting in a mixed bag of a film.
With the X-Files shut down, FBI Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) have been reassigned to an anti-terrorist unit. They uncover a bomb at a federal building in Dallas, but are unable to prevent it from going off. As they face censure and reassignment from the FBI, Mulder runs into Alvin Kurtzweil (Martin Landau), who claims to be an old friend of his father. Kurtzweil tells Mulder that the bombing was a government cover-up, intended to hide the appearance of the alien "Black Oil" in rural Texas. The Oil has mutated, not only controlling human minds but using their bodies to gestate aliens, and the shadowy Syndicate led by Strughold (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and the Cigarette-Smoking Man (William B. Davis) is at a loss how to combat it. Mulder and Scully are soon on the case, with Scully placed in imminent danger and Mulder forced to track her to, literally, the ends of the Earth.
The X-Files hits on all cylinders as entertainment. The modest, story- and character-driven show flees the gloomy woods of British Columbia for epic locations in America, North Africa and elsewhere, going from a creepy thriller to a full-bore blockbuster. Pumped full of action, effects and intrigue, it's designed to keep most viewers engaged even if they're confused as hell about what's going on. Until the overwrought (and overlong) conclusion in Antarctica, the film remains solidly entertaining throughout.
X-Philes will find much to like, and much to quibble with. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are in top form, bringing their incomparable wit and chemistry to the big screen intact. Exchanges like Mulder's "panic face" warm the cockles of this fan's heart. Mulder and Scully still hadn't hooked up yet, so we're treated to the usual smoldering, unresolved tension capped with a "near-miss kiss." On this score, no real complaints.
Not surprisingly, though, the movie stumbles in trying to make sense of the Mythology. The Black Oil already underwent mutations on the show, from a mind-controlling substance to some sort of toxic pathogen, and now it undergoes another transformation into Alien-like ET beasts. The virus-transmitting bees from earlier seasons are present in a different form as well. We should note that, though the film was shot between the fourth and fifth seasons, it wasn't released until after the fifth, leading to inevitable plot holes and inconsistencies with the series. Nothing we learned in Season 5 (save Scully's remission from cancer) is really relevant here, and the plot directions the film takes are conveniently ignored in later seasons.
Rob Bowman was the series's most prolific director, whose TV work never translated into big screen success (Reign of Fire, Elektra). A pity, as he shows a real flair for the cinematic here, handling a massive production very well. There is extensive location shooting, lots of creative action scenes and some gobsmacking set design (especially the Antarctic alien base). The sheer scope of the thing allows it to be more than just a two-hour episode of the series. Mark Snow gets to expand on his usual moody stylings with an appropriately epic score.
The other series regulars get the short end of the stick: the villainous Smoking Man, Mulder and Scully's testy boss Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and the goofy Lone Gunmen (Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund and Bruce Harwood) show up long enough for X-Philes to recognize them and then bow out. The exception is John Neville (Billy Budd), whose change of heart is genuinely affecting and his sacrifice quite poignant.
The film's "guest stars" are ill-used. Martin Landau (North by Northwest) gets a solid character, his Kurtzweil a shadowy informer in the mould of Jerry Hardin's Deep Throat and Steven Williams' X. Armin Mueller-Stahl's (The International) Syndicate leader isn't around long enough to register, and Blythe Danner (Meet the Parents) plays a one-note FBI bureaucrat. 1013 regular Terry O'Quinn (The Stepfather) shows up just long enough to die.
The X-Files is a flawed but admirable attempt at bringing the show to the big screen. It's certainly miles better than...
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008, Chris Carter)
Fast-forward ten years. The X-Files has been off the air for six years, long after the show "jumped the shark" via three hideous final seasons. Dip in quality aside, the show's viewership had dissipated by the finale, and certainly by 2008 interest in The X-Files was slim-to-none. The question arises: Who exactly demanded this film be made? Not the audiences who flocked to see The Dark Knight instead. Not the critics who excoriated it. Not the X-Philes who largely shunned it.
I Want to Believe's cold reception is, sadly, well-deserved. It offers precious few treats for X-Philes, and offers little but a routine and convoluted thriller for the lay viewer. The weak story, boring characters and virtual absence of anything really weird doom I Want to Believe to failure, a belated rehash of a long-cancelled show that few cared to revisit.
A number of women in West Virginia, including an FBI Agent, have gone missing without a trace. FBI Special Agents Whitney (Amanda Peet) and Drummy (rapper Xzibit) call on Mulder, still for the crimes alleged in the series finale, and Scully, now a practicing medical doctor, call on them for expertise. Seems a pedophile priest Father Joe (Billy Connolly) claims a psychic connection to the victims, and Mulder and Scully try and determine his credibility - and find the victims - while becoming increasingly attached to the case.
The main pleasure I Want to Believe offers is seeing what Mulder and Scully are up to post-X-Files. Duchovny sports an Al Gore beard for much of the film, Anderson wears her hair long and Mitch Pileggi's still bald. More to the point, Mulder and Scully seem to have an off-and-on relationship, and "shippers" get to see the couple cuddling in bed. Their lost child, William, is mentioned only in passing and it seems that, despite mutual attraction and love, their relationship remains frustratingly complicated. On its own terms, however, the film is pretty shoddy.
I don't object to the film's jettisoning the "mythology" for a standalone story, which was so ridiculous by the final season (the Terminator-like "Super Soldiers"? Scully's part-alien baby? Gag) that a film would probably be Ed Wood quality. But Carter just can't make this story interesting. The Russian surgeons' transplantation experiments (shades of Sergei Bryuhonenko?) are creepy but not really X-Files material, and their completely one-note characterization doesn't help. Similarly, Father Joseph's psychic abilities are sketchy at best and make the paranormal claim highly dubious. Too much time is spent on Scully's efforts to save terminally ill boy Christian, a hopelessly maudlin and cloying subplot that adds nothing to the film. Ultimately, the film is a failure as both an X-File and a thriller.
Duchovny and Anderson are in fine form, rekindling their old chemistry and passion. As before, the supporting cast is poorly used. Mitch Pileggi reprises his role as Skinner only briefly, but at least he plays a key role in the story. Billy Connolly's psychic priest is an underdeveloped character hedging this side of stereotype (Catholic, Irish and a pedophile? Saints preserve us!). Amanda Peet and Xzibit are one-note and terrible, respectively, as the agents who bring Mulder and Scully in.
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