Akte X: Jenseits der Wahrheit

There is a difference in reviewing bad film-making as opposed to personal taste. Frankly, I argue this movie more from personal taste, although X-Files - I Want to Believe is certainly not bad film-making. In all honesty, I was very nervous about X-Files I Want to Believe. Ever since Star Wars the Phantom Menace, I have learned to lower my expectations when venturing into Hollywood movies (although lowering your expectations to nothing could not save the Star Wars Prequels). Nothing is worse than a huge let-down. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull comes to mind the quickest. With X-Files, I Want to Believe, I went in with no expectations whatsoever and was thoroughly entertained. It made me pine for the old television series I loved to watch in the 1990's (at least until Seasons 8 and 9). Dr. Dana Scully is working at a Catholic Hospital, fighting for a young boy who has little to no chance of surviving. She pushes herself hard, not giving up hope in the wake of despair. She fights for Alexander (the son she lost in the television series). The FBI comes to her, asking for help in tracking down Fox Mulder. They want his help in a baffling case. An FBI agent has disappeared. The only link is an unusual psychic. Not only does he have scant visions, he also is pedophile priest under house arrest. Of course, Mulder wants to believe this man. Scully, however, does not. This not only stems from her usual scientific mind, but also her moral outrage at his crimes. As this psychic leads them to various clues, a case slowly uncovers. Some strange, bizarre, twisted scheme of harvesting organs for nefarious purposes arises. Mulder of course ventures closer, putting himself in peril. Scully, balks, wondering if she can continue in Mulder's dark world. Believe it or not, this one works. In fact, I liked it better than Fight the Future. While Fight the Future was inserted in the ongoing mythology of government conspiracies and alien extra-terrestrials, this one works more as a stand-alone movie, much like the episodes of the same flavor. I admit I liked the latter episodes better. So for the X-Philes who liked the conspiracy episodes better, you may want to stick to Fight the Future. That gets me to wonder if this movie will find new fans for the 15-year-old franchise, or only appeal to X-Philes. Only time can tell on that one. What makes this work for me, though, is that it is in the spirit of the original television series. It does not rely on paranoid delusions, government conspiracies, and alien extra-terrestrials. Instead, it relies more on a potentially dangerous and real situation with surrealism in the background. Just like some of the stand-alone episodes of X-Files, the outcome is not predictable. Also, by the end, the surrealism takes a back-seat to the suspense of catching the antagonists. It also unfolds slowly, not giving us a full glimpse into the nefarious plot finally revealed in the end. Just like the series, the antagonists goal is evil and eerie--pushing the envelope of imagination and fear. Just like the series, the plot is also based on real fringe scientific experiments. Both the movie, and the reality sent a shiver up my spine (by the way, leave the kids at home on this one. Kids younger than 11 or 10 might get some nightmares.) This paves the way for one thing X-Files television series did well: lacing messages of philosophy, religious allegory, and faith. Some of the best stuff comes when Fox and Dana converse with each other. Scully fears being with Mulder because his world brings around so much darkness, and she fears that. She also doubts her own faith. Mulder must ask himself questions in regards to his relentless search of the "truth." Another warning must go out that this movie is not an action movie. It works more like a thriller and a suspense movie instead of lacing itself with shootouts,car chases, and outlandish stunts. It also is not scary, but rather suspenseful. I think if Cris Carter were a better director, it might have found a little more suspense, and possibly a little more fright. That being said, I still think this movie works--at least for me.

Just as FIGHT THE FUTURE was the perfect bridge between seasons 5 and 6 of the TV series, I WANT TO BELIEVE sits at the center of the fourteen year gap between seasons 9 and 10. Having moved on -apart- for several years, Mulder and Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson) must reunite in order to solve a particularly grisly new case.

Director and X-FILES guru extraordinaire, Chris Carter pays homage to everything from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS / SEVEN to HOSTEL and even FRANKENSTEIN! Toss in Billy Connolly as a psychic, pedophile priest, and we're off to the paranormal races! Amanda Peet is quite good in her role as lead FBI agent, Dakota Whitney. Don't blink, or you might miss Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) in his extended cameo appearance!

Highly recommended for both fans and casual viewers of the show...

In the last shot of the theatrical preview for this movie, we see Mulder and Scully turn around to stare at something we assume is very significant. Turns out it's merely a pedestrian reaction shot. And as such, it represents I Want To Believe very well.

This movie gets pretty much everything wrong. First off, it assumes that people watching it have not only seen, but also remember the weak last few seasons of the show. {WHAT FOLLOWS WOULDN'T BE CONSIDERED A SPOILER BY THE FILM'S DIRECTOR, SINCE HE SEEMS TO ASSUME WE ALREADY KNOW THIS} I had no recollection of the two leads ending up romantically involved, which is an incredibly wrong-headed development. Mulder and Scully's platonic partnership was the show's strongest building block. Seeing them in bed together came as a "what the f--k?" moment and felt as wrong as incest. {END MILD, INSIGNIFICANT SPOILER} Then there's the impression that series creator Chris Carter (who wrote and directed this movie), Gillian Anderson, and David Duchovny have all forgotten not only who these characters are, but what the show was about.

The actors call each other by their characters' names, but it feels like a bad impersonation. The biggest problem might be the story, though, which needed to feel like more than just an afterthought, a contrivance to get our duo to investigate spooky goings-on. Speaking of which, the supernatural plays a surprisingly tiny part; apparently, Carter even forgot the genre of his TV show. The main plot feels too mundane (at least until its secrets are revealed at the end, which does provide a few welcome horror thrills). There is an entire pointless subplot devoted to a dilemma faced by Scully at the hospital where she works. The film's subtitle is repeated to eye-rolling effect every time. A recurring character from the show makes an appearance but is given nothing to do. Then Duchovny spouts a few pseudo-profundities, and the whole mess mercifully ends.

The X-Files, one of the most famous television shows that ended in 2002, had a movie in 2000, just came out with a sequel. To be honest, I was wondering why, I know that there are still fans that are shaking to see their favorite agents back, but the story was weak and felt like another episode, just an extended one. Now I did enjoy The X-Files series, I also did like the first X-Files film, so I felt like maybe this was going to be big and have an exciting story, but instead we have just another episode that is trying to have the Saw edge and gross people out. We also have some added characters that are just weak, for example Xzibit as a one dimensional character who is just flat and typical, also, it's Xzibit, I don't know what casting director was thinking "he's perfect", no offense to this guy, but he should stick to his day job. David and Gillain are also off track and don't have the same chemistry as they did in the series.

Fox Mulder has been requested back by the FBI to help them with a case of missing female FBI agents, he meets a priest/pedophile/psychic who is also helping the FBI out with the case. Dana Scully has decided to stay with her current career as a doctor who is struggling to save a little boy's brain disease. But Fox wants her back in work with him and together they discover the darker world that is happening with these missing FBI agents and the Russian black market.

The X Files: I Want to Believe is over all not a bad movie by any means, but it's at this point that it seems like the writers were not even trying. Also with David and Gillain, I like to call this movie The X Files: I Want a Paycheck, because they just didn't put their hearts into this and you can tell very much, I thought David hated the series, you think he would have been more stubborn or at least would have read the script first before the paycheck. As far as for the fans, I'd recommend that you just do the matinée, it's not a full price ticket movie, it's just an extended episode, the ending is anti-climatic and this was just pointless.

5/10

The world is a greatly changed place since the heyday of "The X-files." Back in the late 1990's the TV show was at its height and tapping into the shared fears of the day: fear of the unknown, fear of the impending millennium, and fear that something larger than us (the government or alien invaders) was up to no good. Flash forward to the year 2008 and we know all that hubbub about the millennium was for nothing, our government has been up to no good for years, and it's not space invaders we need to worry about but other people terrorizing us. The murky, gloomy, grim style of "The X-Files" is now the norm with feverish and dark films like "There Will Be Blood" and "The Dark Knight" tapping into the mindset of culture today from opposite ends of the film spectrum.

Apparently creator Chris Carter didn't realize his baby was irrelevant now. His only mission should've been to please the faithful. If he wanted to revive his series on film, he had best stick to the labyrinthine alien mythology that still has some die-hard fans buzzing, or at the very least deliver a fun stand-alone monster-of-the-week style flick that would make fans jump in their seats. With "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" he does neither of those things. Instead, he gives us a story where Mulder and Scully come out of hiding to work on a case where the FBI are using a psychic criminal priest to help locate a missing agent and track down a potential serial killer. The plot fits more into the mold of his far less popular companion series "Millennium" than it does to "The X-Files." Apparently Carter wanted to please no one except perhaps himself.

The weirdest thing about the film is that it isn't all that bad. Carter as a director lays on some decent atmosphere (with all the global-warming defying snow and some eerie nighttime shots) and creates some palpable tension as the horrors of the case grow grimmer. The chemistry between Mulder (a lazy but effective David Duchovny) and Scully (an amazingly fully ranged and emotional Gillian Anderson) is still there, and Anderson's performance is especially gripping. Billy Connolly, cast against type, gives an interesting turn as the corrupted priest searching for redemption through his visions that probably would've garnered an Emmy nod had this been a very special two-part TV episode. Also good is Amanda Peet, looking smashing in her smart FBI pantsuits.

Most interesting is the story arc given Dana Scully. I honestly had stopped watching the show after the sixth season, and aside from the mythology storyline that built up to the first film released ten years ago, I recall some of my favorite episodes being the ones where Scully questioned her faith and struggled with reconciling her Catholicism with her scientific approach to the paranormal investigations. This is again explored here, as Scully, always the skeptic, so desperately wants to believe in something. However, it's an odd choice for Carter to focus on this internal human drama when he should be focusing on how to bring fans back into the fold. It would've been an interesting and compelling layer had Carter not been so inept with the rest of the plot.

In the end some fine performances and a moody atmosphere do not add up to a good time. Eventually it becomes an uncomfortable and anachronistic creep-fest that plays like the type of suspense thriller that ruled the roost in the mid-1990's after films like "Silence of the Lambs" and "Seven" made police detection and serial killing popular entertainment. Well, it's 2008, Mr. Carter, and it's time to wake up from your prolonged nightmare that was rendered uninteresting in 2001.