X-Files - I Want To Believe (1-Disc Edition) [DVD]

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 the final act as Assistant Director Walter Skinner, adding a bit of excitement to proceedings as Scully struggles through the snow whilst trying to locate a missing Mulder.

The DVD is released in both a single disc and double disc format. Both versions available are Chris Carter's Director's Cut. The Single Disc edition has the movie and a few trailers. The 2 Disc Edition is packed to the brim with numerous documentaries and featurettes. It is also equipped with a Digital Copy of the film for you to download to your relevant ipod media etc.

In conclusion: a well made but slightly underwhelming drama. Roll-on the next alien invasion movie!

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.

I've recently sat through virtually the entire nine year TV series with a great deal of pleasure, even during the weaker seasons (S.6 and S.9, for example). So I feel well placed to pass judgement on this ill-advised revival of the Mulder and Scully partnership. Given the movie's content, the writers might just as well have used Reyes and Doggett. The "X" files themselves are namechecked but are of no relevance to this muddled narrative of kidnapping and diabolical transplants.

Billy Connolly is brought in as a former paedophile priest who claims psychic powers; drop the word 'psychic' and the FBI task leader instantly thinks of Mulder, bringing him back to work for the bureau on the flimsiest of pretexts. Scully persuades him, he insists she come along, but halfway through she changes her mind and decides they should both drop it. (Women!) He continues to believe in the priest's ability, but his faith in the priest is as unbelievable and as irrelevant as the other agents' scepticism.

There's a subplot about MD Scully wanting to save a dying boy with radical surgery, but that, much like the big investigation, is written acted and directed with no conviction whatsoever. Was it nostalgia, or money, that persuaded Duchovny, sexing TV up as Hank Moody in recent years, to revisit Mulder with the old team (even Skinner pops up)? Basically it's a feature-length episode, but one that never would have got made when the show was at its creative height.

A complete waste of time, I'm sorry to say.