The X Files: I Want To Believe (including Bonus Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] [2008]
The feature film The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a satisfying if unspectacular installment in the X-Files series, taking place an unspecified time after the show’s nine-year television run. Former agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is now a doctor, while Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is being hunted by his former agency and living in seclusion. He and Scully are summoned back by a case involving a missing agent and a former priest (Billy Connolly) who claims to be able to see clues to the agent’s whereabouts psychically, though his initial search turns up only a severed limb.
Don’t expect the usual cast of characters; the FBI has completely turned over (except for the George W. Bush portrait), and the only reason Scully and Mulder are back is because agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) remembers his success on similar cases involving the inexplicable. Don’t expect the same rogues’ gallery either; unlike the previous X-Files feature film, which was inextricably linked to the series’ convoluted mythology arc (and served as a bridge between the fifth and sixth seasons), I Want to Believe is a stand-alone piece that makes use of the series’ roots in horror/sci-fi and moody Vancouver, B.C., locales. Also unlike the previous film, which was almost self-consciously shot for the big screen, this film is on a smaller scale, like a double-length episode of the series. But it’s still a good reminder of the creepy vibe that hooked fans for years. And the relationship between Mulder and Scully? It seems to have resumed pretty much where it left off, at least when you take into account the long period of separation. But stick around for the end-credit sequence to take in all the possibilities for the future. –David Horiuchi, Amazon.com
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Good as a thriller, but not as an X Files film,
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After years away from our screens, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson) return in `The X Files: I Want to Believe’. An FBI agent has gone missing in Virginia and the only hope that they have of finding her is by using a priest who is a psychic. The FBI also call in ex-agents Mulder and Scully to use their expertise in the paranormal to help find out what is going on.
I’ve been a big fan of The X Files since it first started and have watched the episodes again and again and I’ve been looking forward to seeing this for ages. I finally got to watch it the other night and I had a lot of mixed feelings when I got to the end. As an X Files film I was disappointed. There was no real supernatural/paranormal/extraterrestrial goings-on, no monsters or aliens lurking in the shadows, Scully wasn’t really part of it all until the end, no conspiracies to be seen at all, so it didn’t really feel like an X Files episode or film at all. As a serial killer thriller though, this was fantastic. It was creepy and atmospheric, had some really good characters and a decent storyline, it was suspenseful and exciting and kept me guessing until the end. To be honest, it felt a bit like Kiss the Girls but with Mulder and Scully instead of Alex Cross. I really did enjoy this film but like I said before – it isn’t X Files.
The Blu Ray picture was very good and was extremely crisp throughout with no graininess in the darker scenes. The sound however was a little quiet – I had the speakers turned right up and it still wasn’t all that loud.
Overall I personally think it was a bad move by the writers to stray away from the sci-fi horror format that the show is liked so much for and so I think if you’re watching this expecting it to be like the show you will be disappointed. If you watch it not expecting it to be like the show and are a fan of crime thrillers then you will more than likely enjoy this.
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|Not exactly a case for Mulder and Scully,
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When Chris Carter revealed the first footage from the new X-Files movie at this year’s Comi-Con Festival 2008 in San Diego accompanied by stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, it was greeted with crowds of hysteria by the festival’s visitors. It showed Billy Connolly rushing through the deep snow atop a frozen lake, an FBI search team equipped with helicopters and Alsatians following behind him. He would drop to his knees and cry…”Its Here!…..Here!…..it’s Here!”. Great stuff I can tell you, and certainly enough to get you very excited about the prospect of the new movie.
Indeed, it’s very appealing to see Duchovny and Anderson back on the screen together after 6 years since the show aired it’s final episode. The X-Files show was always of a high quality, and the first X-Files movie, released in ’95, was also very well produced. The same can be said this time. X-Files creator Chris Carter, making his feature debut, has put together a very detailed and original story for our intrepid heroes to unravel. This time around the story has nothing to do with the alien mythology: the thread that ran through the core of the series. Here we have a stand-alone mystery enabling those who’ve never seen the series to enjoy and appreciate what the X-Files was all about. This was a wise move by the creator. That it has been 6 years since the show finished, it is also entirely possible that there is a whole new audience that may not have even heard of the show – and therefore, may have been completely indifferent to Chris Carter serving up another round of his alien invasion conspiracy.
So…..Just what exactly is this new adventure about? The production has been shrouded in secrecy since its inception with even the actors somewhat in the dark regarding the movie’s script and story – and this is perhaps the first opportunity for a reviewer to identify where the problems with this picture may lie. The idea of keeping plot details secret was a marketing masterstroke during the heights of the show’s popularity, compelling the audience to tune in to find out more. Everyone wanted to learn of the phenomena that Mulder and Scully were investigating each week. But 6 years after the show ended??!! There is not the same level of interest in Mulder and Scully anymore, and during a recent visit to the cinema to see another movie, I heard several very audible groans from the audience when the trailer for this movie was shown. You cannot employ the same marketing tactics for this movie that you used six or seven years ago! It just won’t work! Audiences are just not as interested in the X-Files as much as they used to be. And the marketing department at Fox Pictures should have known this! There is also a certain amount of mis-direction with regards to the content of the picture. The film is trailered to suggest that Mulder and Scully will be hunting down some kind of terrible creature or beast, some kind of mutant human – possibly a werewolf. But this is absolutely not what you get! Don’t misunderstand me, I am a big fan of the X-Files and very much in favour of being surprised when I go to the cinema. But by the end of the first act, when it becomes apparent what the film is really about, you will very likely be disappointed. Fox Pictures obviously realised this in advance and had the movie marketed as a horror.
Another problem with the picture is the release date. Why open a slightly macabre movie like The X-Files, which may be obscure to some, during the height of the summer season only one week after the most long-awaited picture of the year: The Dark Knight? Given the film’s subject matter it would have been more suited to a late September release, or perhaps October. The story is set during the dead of winter showing FBI search teams wrapped up in thick insulated coats struggling through blizzards. To release the film during the summer was completely inappropriate, when audiences prefer to see fun popcorn blockbusters drenched in sunshine.
To give the movie it’s due; it is very well made, well acted and well directed. But the film’s main problem is that it comes across as a very straightforward FBI/Police procedural: competently put together but nothing spectacular – perhaps an illustration of the movie’s relatively tight budget (approximately $30 million), quite low for a studio picture. But there is still much to enjoy; Mulder and Scully’s relationship developed to the point where they are now sleeping together, and thankfully, being honest with each other. Their more intimate moments are quite affecting, and there is a very emotional sub-plot with Scully (now a Doctor) battling to cure a terminally ill child at the medical facility where she works. The supporting cast also do well; Amanda Peet and rapper Alvin `Xzibit’ Joiner feature as other FBI agents on the hunt for a missing colleague, and finally; (Yay!) Mitch Pileggi appears in…
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|Like a pair of comfortable slippers,
As with most people, I though that this would have a lot more weirdness and action. Then again, I was so confused by the ending of series 9, that I’ll need to see it again to work out exactly what Mulder was fighting about, apart from “I believe and lots of people don’t and they lied about it”. So this film was like putting on an old pair of slippers. You don’t expect much but they’re comfortable. I wanted to say that Billy Connolly was excellent, but in fact he was not really given anything to get his teeth into. We had one scene between him and Scully where he questions the fact that paedophiles (well, the ones who ask for treatment, that is) medically dose themselves to fight off urges which are beyond their control. So if these urges are beyond their control, they come from….where? It would have been interesting to have had some debate between the god believer and the ex-priest (to whom the phrase “I want to believe” could also be applied), when he is now embittered by his relationship with god, but no. That spluttered out.
Why has Mulder got a beard? Tired cliche this, “I’m going to do something radical until the moment when I ‘become’ the character the fans have tuned in to see”. Either have a beard or don’t have one, show your transformation through acting instead.
“Don’t give up” – very un-Scully like to have her giving up. She doesn’t need people she doesn’t believe in to say that to her, she’s been through far more without giving up.
Not a lot of humour, shame, the Mulder quips are a little like hearing the same joke for the twentieth time. I only laughed at the pause before “Now I can’t sleep”.
I did cheer at the appearance of the only “Person at the FBI with balls”. Too short an appearance.
So, it holds the attention, there’s quite a bit of familiarity, but it also suffers a bit from trying to stay within the ‘culture’. Example : Mulder and Scully are together because….Scully can’t find anyone? Mulder is hiding. OK. Much more interesting would be to have Scully in a new relationship and Mulder in hiding but then realising that the FBI have moved on. He’s less news-worthy than the threat of terrorism.
I’d advise you watch this one first, and then decide if you want to add it to the collection.
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