The X Files

To start off with, I do not watch the TV show, so I'm coming from a place of ignorance when it comes to The X-Files: Fight the Future. However, even without knowing anything about the characters or story lines, I found that I enjoyed this movie a lot, and will probably now start watching the shows reruns.

The movie starts off tens of thousands of years in the past, where an alien life form is roaming in underground caves. Fast forward to the present, and that same life form is unearthed by some kids in Texas. No one knows what killed this boy, and the firemen sent down to save him. Or maybe, someone does know. Enter Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). A seemlingly unconnected terrorist bombing is linked with the mysterious deaths in Texas, and lead Mulder and Scully all over the world to figure out this global conspiracy. Who knows about this alien life form? And why are they trying so hard to keep it a secret?

From what I've been told, a lot of the regulars on the TV show make an appearance in the movie. But as I said earlier, even without knowing who these people are, the movie itself is good enough to stand on its own. What I found I liked the most, and the reason I'll start watching the show, is the interaction between Duchovny and Anderson. After 5 years together, these two work perfectly as a team. They know each other so well; you feel the chemistry and tension between them. The supporting cast was strong, and I liked the idea that an entire alien race is being hidden from the world by a bunch of old white men. The story itself, while again from what I hear doesn't really conclude any plot points from the show, nor start any new ones, manages to stand by itself. The scenery was terrific, especially the opening sequence in the underground caves. What I was disappointed with was it seemed as if Duchovny was in the movie a lot more than Anderson. It was as if he was the star of the film, and she was a supporting member. The story seemed to revolve around him, and she was there to play off of. I wish that Chris Carter (the series writer and creator, and screenwriter for this film) would have made her more of an equal. The other problem I had was that while the plot was good, at times it wasn't explained as much as it could have been. The reason for the cover-up wasn't made as clear as it could have been, at least in my mind.

Whether you're a fan or not, The X-Files: Fight the Future is a good way to spend a couple hours in a nice air conditioned environment.

The X-Files movie really is as good a big screen adaptation as you could possibly hope for.

It helps that it's entirely controlled by the people behind the series, and that the programme had cinematic qualities in the first place. On repeat viewings, however, the story is revealed to be thin, and lacking in incident. Its need to tie into events of the series makes it not wholly satisfying as a stand-alone vehicle, though it should still be understandable to those that have never seen an episode.

David Duchovny as Mulder seems surprisingly at ease in his limited way, while Martin Landau is good as far as plot devices go. Gillian Anderson is unfortunately encouraged to overstate her lines, particularly in the beginning, while a cameo by The Lone Gunmen is perhaps the only indulgence that would be lost on non-fans.

There are inevitable concessions to the cinema format, of course. Not the touted mild use of expletives, which happened from time to time on TV anyway. But the alien presence that mutates to owe a debt to Ridley Scott's Alien, or the near-kiss between the two leads. Thankfully, the first point actually makes a logical sense and carries the story forward. The second is something that was also long overdue, and silly that it took so long. For two people who obviously feel about each other the way Mulder and Scully do, to go five years without even kissing is stretching credulity.

Ultimately, though, it lacks any clear focus for a casual film audience, and flits repetitively from action sequence to sloppy exposition and back again throughout its duration. Creator Chris Carter, like Gene Roddenberry with Star Trek before him, is not the smoothest writer of his own series, though he does adequately most of the time. Worst example is the opening Mulder/Scully scene which is laughably trite, and there are plenty more examples of Carter's trademark purple prose. Yet it does have a beginning, middle and end, and can be watched back-to-back with a TV episode with no noticeable jumps in style. In that sense, then, it is a most successful big-screen adaptation of a television series.

Hard-core X-File fans will be inclined to award an extra mark to the total, then. But for a non-committal audience, this is a "6" as they would have no idea from watching this that the frail, fag-smoking pensioner is the series' major villain.

The X-Files' first movie is great. It has a clever, yet complicated, plot. The movie tackles the alien conspiracy head on, connecting some plot details from the show. But like an episode of the show, only a small piece of the puzzle is explained. The movie is a scary and thrilling sci-fi movie. All that's missing is a sequel.

I've met a LOT of people who whine that this is just a two-hour episode with a big budget. I don't see how that's a complaint. I mean, if one of the best-written, best-directed, most atmospheric shows on television makes a movie-length episode that can stand on its own...what's the problem? That still makes it more intelligent than 90% of the movies put out this summer.

In 35,000 BC northern Texas, two men enter an ice cave to find shelter. They battle a mysterious creature. A black substance oozes from the creature and infects one of the men. In the present day, a boy falls into the cave and is infected by the black ooze. Firefighters climb in and are also attacked. One week later, the FBI is checking on a bomb threat in Dallas. Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) go to the building across the street on a hunch. They find the bomb and barely escape. The pair is made the scapegoats. Alvin Kurtzweil (Martin Landau) tells Fox that FEMA has a secret isolation ward in the building. The boy and the firefighters are found in the rubble presumed to be killed by the blast.

Mulder and Scully's banter is back almost immediately. Everything that is beloved about the show is present in this movie. They are the outsiders. There is a conspiracy. There is something creepy. This is what true fans of the show love. For non-fans, this can be a bit of a climb to understand everything.