I think the second “X-Files” movie, 2008’s “I Want to Believe,” is a nice thank-you letter to fans, who are given one last chance to follow Mulder and Scully into the darkness (plus: Hey, there’s Skinner!). It certainly has its detractors, though: The film scores a 5.9 on the IMDB ratings (compared to an 8.9 for the series as a whole and 6.8 for the first movie).
For all the cozily familiar trappings — Mulder’s sense of humor (“Avoid the activities room,” he says when approaching a dormitory of sex offenders); the Mulder-Scully relationship (they are living together as a couple, hiding from the FBI as per the end of “The Truth”); and a deliciously grisly case about a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein in the West Virginia mountains — this is a new approach to an X-File. Even as a stand-alone tale (there’s no mythology here, not even a casual mention of the alien apocalypse looming in December 2012), “IWTB” is short on action and long on quiet scenes and mood (it was shot in the Vancouver winter, and it looks darkly beautiful).
The parts that detractors probably consider padding are Scully’s mission to cure a dying boy with cutting-edge stem-cell surgery; lots of time spent with Father Joe, a convicted child molester with visions that lead to clues on this case; and the up-and-down of the Mulder-Scully relationship (c’mon, we all know that Mulder chasing down one more X-File isn’t going to cause Scully to break up with him).
When I saw this in the theater, I probably had a smile on my face from start to finish because I was happy just to see these characters again (it had been six years since “The Truth,” and I hadn’t watched many reruns in the interim). Now I can see that the detractors aren’t entirely off base, even though I think they’re being a little harsh.
If “IWTB” was edited down to a 44-minute episode emphasizing the creepy villains and spending less time on Mulder’s “Just when I got out, they drag me back in!” arc, I think it would rank as a fan-favorite episode. The two-headed dog, the shot of the guy’s head (blinking, no less!) on ice as it waits to be attached to a woman’s body — this all shows that Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz knew they had to step up the wiggins factor for the big screen, and they delivered.
Still, I stand by that other stuff. The guest cast features Billy Connolly, taking a rather thankless role as a psychic yet commanding the screen (gotta love an Irish brogue); and Callum Keith Rennie as the main Russian thug — he gives a vaguely scary, vaguely sympathetic turn that subconsciously makes me think he killed Rosie Larsen, too. There’s also Nicki Aycox (who also played a teenager in “Rush”) as a kidnap victim, and Stephen E. Miller (Frank’s Season 3 boss on “Millennium”) as a feed store manager, a couple of casting choices I noticed on this latest viewing.
The FBI agents who call upon Mulder — Amanda Peet’s Whitney and Xzibit’s Drummy — well, they are blank plot devices so that we can focus on the saga’s heroes; there’s an oh-so-slight hint of a Mulder-Whitney attraction, but it’s a tough sell. The unfortunate side effect of having two inexperienced agents desperately calling on Mulder the first time they stumble upon an X-File is that it strongly suggests the X-Files and Doggett’s and Reyes’ jobs no longer exist. This is the second snubbing of Doggett and Reyes, who carried “The X-Files” through the last two seasons: We didn’t learn the fate of their jobs in the finale, and here we learn they got fired, but only by reading between the lines. Also, it means we can’t even get D&R yarns in other media.
I’ve mostly gotten over it, though, especially since it looks like even Mulder and Scully are done on the big screen, to say nothing of Doggett and Reyes and the “X-Files” mythology arc. If that’s the case, “I Want to Believe” is a mostly satisfying final chapter.
(Still, can we at least get that December 2012 alien colonization story in comic-book form? Please, Wildstorm?)
What are your thoughts on “The X-Files: I Want to Believe”: A good creepy yarn, or too padded with character stuff? And do you think we’ll see another “X-Files” movie, or is the franchise dead? Share your thoughts below.
Also, now that I’ve wrapped up the “X-Files”/”Millennium” portion of “Rewatching and reviewing the classics,” what classic TV show should I tackle next? I have a few ideas, but I could potentially be swayed by an impassioned plea.