I used to watch The X-Files pretty regularly, but I think I gave up on it at some point during the last couple of seasons, and I don't remember caring much for the first movie. For a little while, I was mildly interested in this new movie since I liked the idea of it being like a self-contained non-alien/non-conspiracy episode, but at this point, it doesn't seem like much competition for another viewing of Hellboy II or The Dark Knight. Also, I think that this review might have killed any remaining interest that I might have had:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37560

"Of course, a more appropriate title for this second film would be THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE A PAEDOPHILE PRIEST HAS PSYCHIC ABILITIES, because that is exactly what the title refers to."

:blink:

I think that I'd rather see The X-Files: I Want to Be Leaf:



:P

Like many, I followed the first five or six seasons religiously and painstakingly taped them all - something like 50 videotapes are boxed away in the attic. All have been made redundant with the stroke of a pen when I impulse purchased the UK Complete collection box that includes all 9 seasons and the first movie. When I unloaded all the amaray cases from the cardboard slipcase, there was a single large moth wing there. With some unease, I noticed then that many of the slipcases were scattered with the dessicated remnants of the poor creature. Pretty spooky given the nature of the show. I'm looking forward to getting reaquainted with the show and giving those closing seasons a shot. The new movie looks really tired though, based on the trailer I saw.

Victor.

Between the extremely low-key to non-existant advertising, the trailer that doesn't give you a sense of what the film is about and the ain't in cool review, I think my mild interest in seeing the film has officially waned.

Those last two seasons were deal-breakers, though I watched the train wreck unfold till its climax. I'm still interested in the new movie, but I think its time has passed.

(No aliens? No conspiracy?!!)

I think they just lost the Art Bell crowd. :ph43r:

Didn't Art Bell retire at about the same time The X-Files wrapped?

I quit listening when the Noory character took over. Is Bell doing it again?

Victor - that's amazing! When I opned my two-disc THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES there were little bits of David Duchovny all over!

I don't know how to link to the older XF2 thread as it only shows the Mobius main-page url at the top of the page (and I am clueless with this kind of thing), but this is what I said about XF back then:

"THE X-FILES was the last tv-show I watched regularly and I watched it from season 1 all the way through season 9. I thought it was great for the first 5 years. but those last several seasons (6-9) really started to grate on my nerves. The mythology got so retarded and convoluted, and you could tell they were just writing it as it went along with no idea of what it all would mean. It just became infuriating and dumb, but I forced myself to stick with it to the bitter end. Watching the last few seasons pretty much scarred my entire memory of the early years of the series, though. I haven't rewatched an episode or a rerun since it originally went off the air as I just don't care about any of it anymore.

That said, I will probably still check out the new film next summer and see if they can bring some life back into this dead horse. I think a stand-alone non-myth-arc film was the right choice as the first film was pretty unmemorable in its continuation of the bloated conspiracy drama."

----

OK, now I've seen the trailer (eh) and the bland tv-spots. It's just not being marketed very well, or maybe the movie is what it is and the marketing tries to do the best with what they have. I can't imagine any casual fan being realy intrigued by the trailer and saying "Oh, I really gotta go see that." It just looks very generic overall. Stuff we've seen a million times before.

I'm sure X-FILES fans will go to see it regardless and I have decided I will go see it tomorrow too, as I was a big fan at one point. I'm actually kind of excited to see it back just because it's been gone for a while and the wounds of those final years have healed a bit. Also, after reading one review that it was "old-fashioned" and didn't rely on big spfx scenes makes me think it could be a bit more cerebral than the usual summer fare. I'm remaining very skeptical, however. We shall see.

I think it's just that Fox didn't sink much money into the marketing. THE X-FILES 2 is a very low-budget picture (I read somewhere $35 million, but I'd be stunned if it was really that low) that, like the STAR TREK and Kevin Smith movies, has an audience with a measurable ceiling. Fox already knows exactly how much money this movie will gross, and has provided it with a production and marketing budget that will ensure the studio a fixed profit. The first movie ten years ago made $83 million, 36% of which came its opening weekend. This sequel will be lucky to make half that, and Fox knows it, thus the limited budget. Fox's strategy makes sense to me.

No.

Yes. More than any other movie this year.

More than STANGLDELICA...?

I'm going but realized the other day when the ad was showing on TV that if "X-Files" wasn't mentioned I wouldn't even consider this for a theatrical outing. Expect it to be pretty bad but hey hope is eternal or I want to believe or something.

Well, anyone with any lingering affection for the show - if not much hope or enthusiasm for this iteration - might want to consider making it out regardless.

Between the critics and the tracking, I think we're probably witnessing the end of "The X-Files".

Looking at the trailer everything about it looks tired. Even the actors.

Manohla Dargis "Reviews" X - FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE

Um...is the film so uninteresting she forgot to mention what it's about?

Also:

Pop Matters

Salon.com

Slant Magazine

That'd be Chris Carter's usual M.O.

From the POP MATTERS review:

Oddly enough, all would have been forgiven had co-writer/director Carter (who redeems himself in both behind the scenes arenas) simply renamed this project and cast Lance Henriksen as prophet/profiler Frank Black. This is much more a Millennium movie (the horribly underrated X-Files follow up from 1996) than something Scully and Mulder look comfortable in. And in our current political clime, the dour face of a man who’s tuned into the approaching Apocalypse makes for a much better shock conduit.


I'm glad that occurred to someone else, as well.
Guess Lance wasn't bankable enough.

Well whaddaya know? I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I read some of those negative reviews and it makes me wonder if any of those critics ever even watched the show before. This movie is pretty much a throwback to the series - a two-parter length one - and it's fine. It's not the best X-FILES story we've seen, but it's well-made, has some good suspense, a few good twists and shocks, and a lot of questions are asked about the issues of faith vs. science.

There was one reviewer who said that after something like DARK KNIGHT, this movie just looks so quaint and minor. Well, thank God for that. I know I'm not the only one sick of the usual summer CGI big-budget craptaculars and want something a bit more restrained and smart. A gun would have to be pointed to my head before I'd sit through DARK KNIGHT or any other superhero film for that matter. There's not an instant of CGI in XF2 (at least that I noticed) and it benefits greatly because of that. It's an intelligent X-FILES thriller (well, with a few clunky lines of dialog and one or two missteps) and should definitely please the fans, although it may not win over more casual viewers. I do agree with the reviewer that a movie like XF2 may be buried in the usual summer blockbusters as it doesn't deliver exploisons and non-stop action for two hours. Maybe it would have done better as a fall release where it could build up its audience again. Who knows.

If you do go see it, stay through the end credits as there is an amusing coda at the very end.

I have to agree with Jeff. The movie is competently done and interesting. I never found myself bored or uninterested at all. The acting is strong and the typical wisecracks well placed.

I think the comparison to the Dark Knight stems from the fact that the film is BLEAK. The wintery West Virgina countryside (aka...Vancouver) and extra grey and blue color palettes combine for a very depressing and disquieting atmosphere. Mostly though...I found Mulder and Scully's life to be terribly depressing. After 6 years you'd think they would have been in a better place with their lives!! I kept waiting for them to snap out of their funks. The plot does its best to explain this funk (reasons about 'darkness' resonate strongly) but this doesn't take away from the fact that the film is dark. Added to that is some underlying homophobia that sometimes seeps out of Carter's plots and you have a disquieting mix. Of course horror is supposed to be disquieting..so why not spend some time this weekend checking it out. I think you might like it. (smile)

With $4 million in the till on Friday, X-FILES could use a few more believers. It looks as if Scully and Mulder have reached the end of the line.

$10.2 million for the weekend. That's pretty pathetic and below even the lowest expectations.

Opening one week after the potentially biggest film in boxoffice history didn't help, I'm sure, but still, you would think the diehard XF fans would have made it a bigger weekend regardless. Maybe there aren't really that many fans out there anymore. The marketing was extensive as well, as there are billboards and bus-stops all over Los Angeles, I saw the trailer a few times in the theater, and I've even seen a couple of tv-spots even though I barely watch tv. Unfortunately, the trailers and tv-spots were pretty bland and could barely entice me to see the film. Maybe they should have put in some of the horrific frankentsein subplot in the trailers to make it look more exciting, but I appreciated that the trailer left some surprises for the film itself.

In any event, I think X-FILES is probably history after this one. In a way, I think it's a very cerebal and intelligent way to go out. I know critics and a lot of fans are trashing the film left-and-right, but I think it will stand the test of time and be looked back at more fondly after expectations come down. I hate when people say that, but I really believe it so what the hell. Also, if this truly is the final nail in the coffin for the franchise, that just makes that final small sequence after the end credits all the more relevant in its closure. I'm just glad the film was made as it was and look forward to getting the DVD.

I thought it was kind of a mess. Not boring, but mostly that was because I was trying to figure out WTF was going on... and not because of intent on Carter's part, but just because he didn't clarify certain things well enough (for me, at least).

Like, did they ever explain what the big deal was with the MedAlert bracelets? And what was the deal with Scully and Mulder's relationship?

*SPOILER*

I mean, the pillow talk scene was sort of an abrupt way to introduce that they were lovers... and then the flick never got around to explaining the what, where or when of that bit of news.

*END SPOILER*

I'm not saying it's all resting on this, but is it possible that Comic Con had at least a little to do with the low turnout? Certainly, many people who would've gone were probably already busy in San Diego. I'll bet the box office take would've been a little higher if this got released next week or the week after.

... asks everyone who didn't watch the TV series through to the end.

This movie and W over at the arthouse board make me wonder about the moneymen in Hollywood today. I mean, whatever else anyone thought about that town, at least it was acknowledged that they knew how to make cash.

But who greenlighted these? Isn't this movie either 8-10 years late or 10-15 years early? Was there any interest in this -- outside of Mr. Stangl? (Not saying that's bad, maybe this is the best thing since American cheese and we're all missing out, but he's literally the only guy out there I saw who seemed to be looking forward to this.) Nevermind the exceptionally unfortunate timing of it's release. If you were gonna do this, wouldn't Xmas be a much better time? Make this the lonely genre flick that inevitably cleans up just because that's all that's out there?

(As for W -- again, whatever one's political beliefs, beliefs in Oliver Stone or whatever, wouldn't this movie have made more sense four years ago? Isn't there sheer exhaustion on this topic now? From both sides?)

I should really be a movie producer,

doug

Well, true that. I sorta wandered away after Mulder got spirited off by the UFO.

But I woulda thought that I might have picked up on that shift in dynamic just through pop cultural osmosis. Guess not... although a narrative nod in that direction might have been nice.

I had read that the intent was to do a film every two years, starting with 1998's installment. But that got bollixed up, the storyline got hopelessly tangled, there was that lawsuit...and the iron had gone cold, unlike with SEX AND THE CITY, which has been better syndicated since it went off in 2004, or GET SMART, which was able to relaunch itself anew. I'd still like to see it; its problem sounds like too much integrity, and pleasing the base rather than a wider audience that doesn't know, or remember, X from Y or Z. Carter should have had the pair chasing after a city-stomping Cloverfield whatsit with superhero powers this time, then done his chamber piece next.

I just read something at Wired.com that I thought was kind of funny (contains a minor spoiler):

X-Files: I Want to Believe..in Stem Cells

BTW, this morning, I glanced at movie listings in a newspaper, and one theater had Wanted right next to The X-Files, and for just a spilit second, I thought that it said The X-Files: I Wanted to Believe. :P

Kind of SPOILER!-ish if you care.

This episode is better than, say, the very terrible, boring, theologically unsound episode "Miracle Man", but not as good as the terrible, overwrought and entertaining episode "El Mundo Gira". That's about where I rank I WANT TO BELIEVE.

I've been indexing X-FILES plots recently, and episodes not designated Mytharc break down pretty simply. There's three plots: Serial Killer on the Loose!, Natural Disaster!, and Space Thing!. And the Space-Whatever episodes are just variants on Serial Killer episodes that happen to screw up the space opera of the Mytharc. This movie riffles through half a dozen Serial Killer on the Loose! phyla. Anyway, I WANT TO BELIEVE probably shouldn't have namechecked three specific Psychic Detective episodes in its first act, because it just points out that they've done this plot (er, these many, half-hearted, partly-resolved plots) several times.

What we may be dealing with here is the Psychic Detection ep, the Dumb Science! ep, the LOL God Is Real! ep, and the surprisingly frequent And The Killer May Not Even Be Supernatural subset. There's no way this that Father Molesty slightly shaking Scully's faith is anywhere near as compelling as Luther Lee Boggs taunting her with memories of her dead father in "Beyond the Sea". And be sure, it's the same plot mechanism.

More specifically the series covered morally compromised psychic detectives ("Field Where I Died", "Oubliette", "Clyde Bruckman") AND "was it a religious miracle?!" ("Revelations", "Miracle Man", "Signs and Wonders", the berserk "All Souls") many, many... many many times. Usually better, sometimes dumber than I WANT TO BELIEVE. The illegal transplant organ procurement plot was far richer in "Hell Money", and the weird science that is the ultimate motivation is at least more sane, but not as entertaining as "Young at Heart".

That episode is about a reverse-aging revenge-murdering, sight-impaired arch nemesis of Mulder's, who is presumed first to be a classic Revenge Ghost, but no, actually just has a superpowers from anti-progeria research and... a SALAMANDER HAND! "Young at Heart" is my gold standard example of Carter cramming way way way too many story ideas into one File, when any one of them would've sufficed. He commits the same crimes in I WANT TO BELIEVE, but where "Young at Heart" is so cuckoo-brained and eventful it's at least fun to sit through, I WANT TO BELIEVE takes some five barely-related, reheated stories, doesn't link them together properly, doesn't play them out.

So there's both far too much plot and not nearly enough (shh: the Mythology plays that way too, but standout individual episodes don't have to). It seems like I WANT TO BELIEVE was either written in six hours or story threads were stitched together from a decade's worth of drafts. Some of Carter's dialogue when Mulder and Scully are arguing about ideological abstracts becomes so vague and unnatural I can't even tell what they're talking about. It's all so lazy and half-assed and, I guess, coasting on presumed fan goodwill.

Thing is... they have my goodwill. I still had fun. When I sit down to watch X-FILES, if it's a good one, that's great. If it's one of the other, say 120 episodes? Enh. There's probably some good parts. And I'll sit through it anyway. Maybe this is how other people feel about STAR TREK spin-offs: I find X-FILES engrossing even when I know it's terrible.

Go in knowing that Carter was never the finest X-FILES writer or director.

LIKE:
-Scully cracking jokes about Mulder's genitalia.
-Mark Snow's score divorced from the picture.
-Two-headed Russian dog!
-The relationship conflict between Mulder and Scully is dead on the money: chasing demons through the night, is what they do best, and what drew them together. And Scully has soaked up enough agony, and Mulder is a glutton for more personal pain. He cloaks it in stubbornness, determination, being "driven", but Mulder's always been punishing himself as much as he's questing for his vague Grail. She saw an out and liked it; he's screwed up enough to want back in. This conflict is really only written to in a few scenes, but they're good scenes.

NOT LIKE:
-Dr. Scully's faith is shaken because she can't believe God would make a child suffer a disease? How old is this lady? This is a basic Sunday School question that as a medical professional and former law enforcement officer, she should've grappled with and answered for herself long ago. And... kind of has, on TV.
-NO M&S in suits and trenchcoats. I don't think they ever use guns, either.
-NO Scully Performs an Autopsy scene. WHAT? Wrong. Once an awesome brainiac walking textbook, Dr. Scully learns how to perform dangerous experimental procedures for which she is dubiously qualified by... Googling the phrase "stem cell research". Wouldn't... she probably start with a medical journal database, and discussions with specialist colleagues?
-Mark Snow's score accompanying the picture.
-There's just no worthy or memorable monster, villain or X-File phenomenon on display.

Wait a second...

A two-headed dog?
Two-headed dog?
They've been working in the Kremlin with a two-headed dog?

Roky Erickson is gonna be pleased.

Yes. Fox really dropped the ball here. I've already expressed my theory about Fox's lackluster marketing campaign, but summer is just the wrong time for this movie. I thought all along that this was a spring or fall movie...maybe August. To release THE X-FILES the weekend after THE DARK KNIGHT, which was guaranteed to pull in $40-50 million, and the weekend of San Diego Comic-Con is just stupid.

I still think this film was never going to make more than $50 million, no matter what, but it never had a chance in July.

:D

I love you guys!

Not at all a bad film, but once the thrill of seeing Scully and Mulder back in action subsided there wasn't that much memorable to it--outside of some strange sexual stuff off to the side--and there are the usual plot holes papered over by the resigned atmosphere. It really isn't much more than a two-parter, shot and edited like the show, with musical crescendoes before each highpoint as if it were going to break for a commercial. It has a becoming modesty, a definite virtue in a season of overabundance. I think it might have had more of a shot in April or Halloween but was never going to pull in the non-believers.

SPOILER

Yes. The bracelets identified the victims' rare blood type, which the scientists needed for their experiments. Their blood type is why they were chosen.

END SPOILERS


I like this movie too. I don't think the criticism that it's little more than an expanded TV episode is valid, considering the show was responsible more than any other for bringing feature-level production values to weekly television. Although lacking in spectacle (it has only one real action sequence), THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE holds interest through its creepy atmosphere and the strong relationship between Mulder and Scully, who have graduated over the years from professional partners to personal ones. Both Duchovny and Anderson are extremely good together, and it's a shame they'll probably never be paired on-screen again. I don't think Chris Carter was the series' best writer or director, but his direction of the film was much better than I expected, and thankfully he allowed his stars room to breathe in their lengthy dialogue scenes.

Nice (albeit late) use of Mitch Pileggi, but it would have been nice to see Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish instead of Amanda Peet and Xzibit, if only for old time's sake. Or maybe they weren't available? The roles as written could easily have been played by them.