Seen on: July 27, 2008

The players: Director: Chris Carter, Writers: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Xzibit , Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly

Facts of interest: Includes several references to key episodes of the TV series.

The plot: Mulder and Scully try to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearances of an FBI agent.

Our quick thoughts: As a diehard fan of the series, I really wanted to believe in Chris Carter’s “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” but as it turns out, my hopes and excitement quickly got shattered. I actually never thought I’d say this, but for the first time ever, I felt really angry and bored watching Mulder and Scully tackle yet another case involving supernatural phenomena.  

Here’s what I can tell you about the film’s story line without spoiling it: when an FBI agent goes missing and a former priest (Billy Connolly) claims he has visions about what happened, FBI agents Mosley (Xzibit) and Whitney (Amanda Peet) try to bring back Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) to assist them in the investigation.

Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) also returns to the action at Mulder’s request, but she immediately doubts the priest’s supposed psychic connection with the missing person. With time running out and only a handful of clues to work with, Mulder and Scully set out to solve the mystery while simultaneously struggling with past confrontations and their usual differences in beliefs.  

Chris Carter and his team kept the details about the film’s plot under wraps for months, and now I understand why: most of what you see in “I Want to Believe” is nothing but garbage. As far as the intrigue is concerned, the movie feels like a boring 45-minute episode stretched to 100 minutes, lacking the suspense and intricacy of what made the TV show so unique.  

Instead of getting their act together and trying to solve an interesting case, all Mulder and Scully are doing during the movie is arguing. Sure, they did the same thing years back during the run of the series, but now that they’re both leading different lives, you would at least expect them to look at certain things from a different perspective. Alas, Carter almost completely fails to keep the relationship between his two lead characters engaging.

So with Mulder and Scully taking up most of the flick’s running time to fight over who or what to believe, there’s little room left for a sophisticated story line. While the case of the missing FBI agent isn’t as captivating as you would expect it to be, the plot also includes a bunch of unnecessary subplots no one really cares about. The lack of suspense and action does not go unnoticed, and all the religious mumbo jumbo doesn’t exactly help either. 

At this stage, I think it’s appropriate to check if there’s anything left to praise in “I Want to Believe.” Although Carter doesn’t do anything extraordinary in the role of director, the film still boasts an overall decent look. Nothing special here, really, but it’s one of the few things I didn’t exactly hate about the movie. As far as pace is concerned, the second half of the flick picks up some much-needed speed, although by then it’s too late to make up for the shallow script. And of course, listening to Mark Snow’s excellent soundtrack brings back at least a few good memories.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson obviously know their characters very well and bring along enough enthusiasm to reprise the roles that made them famous, but screenwriters Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz never give them interesting enough material to work with. As for Amanda Peet and Xzibit, they both turn in standard supporting performances that go unnoticed because their characters are clearly not developed enough.

Freaky quote: “Scully, I need you on this with me." – David Duchovny

The final word: As sad as I am to say this, something just does not feel right about this new “X-Files” adventure. Adding a new chapter to the whole alien mythology would have made the flick a lot less accessible to many cinemagoers, but I believe it could have served as a basis for a better script. If the producers manage to pull new viewers, then I guess this new big-screen adventure has done its job. For the fans however, they could have put on a better show. I still don’t know what Carter was thinking when he wrote this. Sadly enough, I believe no more.    

Article by Franck Tabouring