Timing is everything in life. The first x-files movie was arguably too early, as it's usually customary for a series to end before it makes the transition to movies, and was therefore bankrupt as a self-contained sci-fi potboiler. The 'sequel', forever delayed due to contractual constipation, arrives far too late. Originally scheduled for 2002 - the perfect time for an x-files movie you'd think with the world gripped by post 9/11 paranoia, love for the series has long since fizzled out. The, I suppose you'd have to say, unintended irony is that the new film has unwittingly tapped into its audience's indifference by being an indifferent offering - an excitement free zone perfectly married to the ticket buying public's lack of expectation and thanks to a non-existent marketing campaign from Fox, awareness.
The greatest mystery Mulder and Scully may want to look into here is why this underpowered and distended television episode was given so little push by its financial backers. Did the litigation required to sort out the contracts cost Fox so much that there was nothing left for the movie itself? On this evidence the FBI have a case. 'I want to believe' is a remarkably low key affair and in terms of ambition, a pale shadow of its cinematic predecessor. There's no scope to the plot, merely atmosphere, which isn't to say that it isn't suitably murky or uneasy - only that it's bereft of any setpiece, construction or incident that would justify a cinema release.
Essentially you have a movie that's as flat as a pancake and just as bland. Watching Duchovny and Anderson look beleaguered and stone faced in drawn out scene after scene, you're marking time waiting for the enterprise to come alive - it never does. X-Files creator and helmer Chris Carter resolutely fails to imbue the proceedings with any humour, thrills or surprises. In their stead the film is cold, reflecting its icy winter setting, and pedestrian in its pacing, mise-en-scene and performances. There's no bad acting here per say, its just looks and feels as though no one really wanted to be there and as the film progresses, that sense of lethargy becomes contagious.
Eschewing the original opening which would have seen pederast priest Billy Connolly buggering 37 boys in real time, the plot we're given ploddingly ponders over matters of faith and redemption but tests ours as well as making the latter for the filmmakers less likely. Some of the blame must be leveled at the studio who made it, lavishing a remarkably thrift $30M on what used to be one of their most lucrative properties. Doing it on the cheap and then stubbornly refusing to spend money trying to create anticipation for the release has hit the box office hard, probably killing this particularly franchise stone dead. Its unlikely to pick up much of a following on DVD either, on account of its pulse slowing approach and lack of spectacle meaning that X-Files: I want to believe that I'll be able to make the second sequel in which the alien invasion that we built up to for 9 seasons actually happens, will remain the one that got away for Carter and company. If you're a real x-phile you may also want to leave before the end credits are over, 'less you're forced to endure one of the cheesiest Hollywood endings in years. I'm afraid the truth is out there and it turns out that it was 'they shouldn't have bothered' all along.
The greatest mystery Mulder and Scully may want to look into here is why this underpowered and distended television episode was given so little push by its financial backers. Did the litigation required to sort out the contracts cost Fox so much that there was nothing left for the movie itself? On this evidence the FBI have a case. 'I want to believe' is a remarkably low key affair and in terms of ambition, a pale shadow of its cinematic predecessor. There's no scope to the plot, merely atmosphere, which isn't to say that it isn't suitably murky or uneasy - only that it's bereft of any setpiece, construction or incident that would justify a cinema release.
Essentially you have a movie that's as flat as a pancake and just as bland. Watching Duchovny and Anderson look beleaguered and stone faced in drawn out scene after scene, you're marking time waiting for the enterprise to come alive - it never does. X-Files creator and helmer Chris Carter resolutely fails to imbue the proceedings with any humour, thrills or surprises. In their stead the film is cold, reflecting its icy winter setting, and pedestrian in its pacing, mise-en-scene and performances. There's no bad acting here per say, its just looks and feels as though no one really wanted to be there and as the film progresses, that sense of lethargy becomes contagious.
Eschewing the original opening which would have seen pederast priest Billy Connolly buggering 37 boys in real time, the plot we're given ploddingly ponders over matters of faith and redemption but tests ours as well as making the latter for the filmmakers less likely. Some of the blame must be leveled at the studio who made it, lavishing a remarkably thrift $30M on what used to be one of their most lucrative properties. Doing it on the cheap and then stubbornly refusing to spend money trying to create anticipation for the release has hit the box office hard, probably killing this particularly franchise stone dead. Its unlikely to pick up much of a following on DVD either, on account of its pulse slowing approach and lack of spectacle meaning that X-Files: I want to believe that I'll be able to make the second sequel in which the alien invasion that we built up to for 9 seasons actually happens, will remain the one that got away for Carter and company. If you're a real x-phile you may also want to leave before the end credits are over, 'less you're forced to endure one of the cheesiest Hollywood endings in years. I'm afraid the truth is out there and it turns out that it was 'they shouldn't have bothered' all along.