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More than six years after the hit TV show The X-Files went off the air—and ten years since the first X-Files movie hit theaters—former FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) have returned to investigate the unexplained one more time. And—despite the fact that I once watched the show religiously—I can’t help but wonder why.
Since I missed the last few seasons of the show—and I didn’t pick up the DVDs to refresh my memory—it took me a while to get caught up on the plot. Fortunately, though, the finer details don’t really matter—so even those who never saw the show shouldn’t have a very hard time following the story.
After their days investigating the mysterious X-Files for the FBI, Scully returned to life as a doctor. Mulder, meanwhile, fell out of favor with the FBI and was forced to go into hiding. Now, however, the FBI has a case that falls into Mulder’s area of expertise—so they coax him out of hiding, assuring him that all has been forgiven.
The case revolves around a missing FBI agent. A troubled priest, Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly), has come forward to say that he’s had psychic visions about the agent’s disappearance. According to Father Joseph, the agent is still alive—but she’s in danger. With nowhere else to turn, Agents Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) and Mosley Drummy (Xzibit) somewhat reluctantly reach out to Mulder and Scully for help.
For the most part, The X-Files: I Want to Believe feels like an extra-long episode of the TV show—though not one of the better ones. Like the show, the movie is dark and creepy (thanks, in part, to the fact that much of it takes place at night…in a snowstorm)—and it touches on some pretty bizarre subject matter. But, unfortunately, the show’s eerie, paranormal flair is missing. Without giving too much away, I can only say that, while the story is definitely creepy, it isn’t especially supernatural in nature—and that’s just not what I expected from The X-Files.
As for the characters, fans of the show will be happy to find that they’ve stayed true to their old nature. Mulder is still delving into the unknown and searching for answers. And Scully, who is appropriately working in a Catholic hospital, still struggles to believe in Mulder’s paranormal mumbo-jumbo. Still, despite my passion for the show a decade ago, I no longer felt attached to the characters—and I had a hard time caring about the story.
I’ll admit that it was nice to spend an hour and a half with Mulder and Scully again. But, since it’s been years since The X-Files ended, I just expected more from the movie. I expected it to be big and bold and filled with all kinds of unexplained paranormal phenomena. Unfortunately, though, the only thing that’s truly unexplained about The X-Files: I Want to Believe is why it needed to be made.
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