The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Unfortunately, no.

I say unfortunately because I was a fan of the series for it's first couple of seasons and, if I recall, I stopped watching because I had other obligations, not because I stopped liking it. The most unfortunate part is that Mulder and Scully really won't be able to survive this mess.

The first movie, The X-Files: Fight the Future, was very good. It had the same feel of the show, and since it was made while the show was still airing, there was very little character development needed. This movie apparently takes place several years after the shows end, because there are things going on in the characters lives that I didn't know about. Since I didn't see the series through to the end, I have to assume that the back story was told at some point because they just talked about there lives as if we would all know what was going on.

I Want to Believe's first big problem was it's story. The movie should have been a continuation or at least a tangent off of Fight the Future. Instead, we get a brand new story that followers of the show might care about, but casual viewers understand or care about. This movie was all about the characters and less about the case that they were working on. I enjoy a character study as much as the next guy, but that's not what I'm going to an X-Files movie for. If you want to see a good character study go see The Visitor, In Bruges, or The Wackness.

The second problem was the dialogue. Some of the worst of the year. There was one scene that I made a mental note of so that I could talk about it. I remember the trite arguement Scully was having with Mulder and I really wish I had held onto what they were actually saying, because it was pretty terrible. So much for mental notes.

Long story short (a concept this movies creators didn't quite understand), we will most likely not be seeing another X-Files movie any time soon. If I Want to Believe had come out 2 or 3 years after Fight the Future, they may have been able to make another movie and fix the mess that they made (assuming the third film was any good). After making their core audience wait for 10 years and then presenting them with this... I do believe it's over for The X-Files.