The X-Files: I Want to Believe 7.5 out of 10 Posted: 08/25/08   Running time: 1:44 MPAA rating: PG-13 (Violent and disturbing content and thematic material.) Peruvian rating: Mayores de 14   Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner, Callum Keith Rennie, Mitch Pillegi. Director: Chris Carter Script: Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter Photography: Bill Roe Score: Mark Snow Distributor: 20th Century Fox

I can’t say I was a devote follower of the now-defunct X-Files TV show. I did see a couple of episodes and found it a pretty enjoyable sci-fi series. It dealt with interesting themes and convoluted plots, and its main characters, Mulder and Scully, were interesting enough to make the show as enjoyable as it was. What I can say is that I thoroughly enjoyed the 1998 movie; a masterpiece it wasn’t, but it worked as an almost standalone science fiction adventure featuring the beloved characters from the show. And now that the second instalment has arrived, ten years later, I have another opportunity to see if these characters are indeed worth watching. So… are they? Well, as entertaining as The X-Files: I Want to Believe is, I’m afraid it is, to a certain extent, a let-down. Those expecting the usual chemistry between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, as well as the supernatural aspects of the show, will be disappointed. As weird as it might sound, this particular sequel works better as a thriller than as an X-Files flick.

The movie takes place six years after the last episode of the TV series. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are living together in a secluded house. He has grown a beard and she has become a doctor at a Catholic hospital, both of them having stopped working for the government. One day, though, an FBI agent goes missing, and a psychic pedophile priest, Father Joe (Billy Connolly), starts to claim he has visions associated with her. Because of this, Mulder is called by the FBI. He resists at first, but agrees, as he ends up working with agents Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) who kind of admires him, and Mosley Drummy (Alvin 'Xzbit' Joiner), who doesn’t believe in the supernatural stuff at all. Their goal is to use the visions Father Joe talks about to find the missing agent. The problem is Scully doesn’t really believe in the FBI anymore, so she decides not to participate in the mission and instead stays in the hospital in order to try to save a patient with a terminal illness.

The main problem I had with I Want to Believe is that it features too few scenes between Mulder and Scully. I understand the fact that they have changed and the reasons why she doesn’t want to work on the case, but I thought much of the appeal of The X-Files lied on the relationship between this two characters. Those fans expecting Mulder and Scully working together as usual (as in the show and the first movie) will be disappointed. Mulder works pretty much on his own (or with either Amanda Peet or Billy Connolly), and although Duchovny is a pretty charismatic actor on his own, every time I watched him on his own I felt something was missing. I could say that the few scenes Duchovny and Anderson share are effective, but I just can’t help being disappointed by the fact that the pair is so separated for most of the film. Amanda Peet’s agent Whitney is a replacement of sorts, I guess, and although she’s a really great actress, she cannot replicate the chemistry Mulder and Scully have together.

I also felt the subplot of the terminal patient and the stem cell treatment was a little undeveloped. It gives Scully a lot to do, to be sure, but it feels a little too “apart” for my taste. The movie isn’t as tightly focused as the previous instalment, which was dedicated almost to its entirety to the “main” mystery. Since in I Want to Believe the protagonists are separated, each one of them with his own “adventure” of sorts, the film loses focus and, believe it or not, dedicates a little too much time to an undeveloped subplot that detracts from the main mystery. I like the idea, I like themes, but they don’t belong to an X-Files movie. I would have preferred a united Scully and Mulder working together on the mystery, really. Am I missing the formula too much? Maybe, but it was precisely the formula (that of Scully the sceptic and Mulder the believer) that made both the show and the first motion picture work so beautifully.

Despite the separation of Mulder and Scully, both protagonists manage to give great performances. The few scenes they have together are great – I particularly like the last scene -, and both Duchovny and Anderson show why they were so successful when performing for the TV show years ago. Despite the reported problems Anderson had in trying to return to the character, she basically acts the same way she did in the first movie and the series. Ditto for Duchovny, whom I hadn’t seen in a film in a long time. Supporting characters are also really good, with a low-key Billy Connolly giving the standout performance. Amanda Peet is beautiful and talented, but doesn’t have much to do with her flat character – her final fate was unexpected, though – and “Xzbit”, who isn’t a bad actor at all, appears in only a handful of scenes. Performances are good all across the board, but both Duchovny and Anderson would have shone more if they had been given more scenes together by series creator (and director of this film) Chris Carter.

Surprisingly enough, I Want to Believe works better as a thriller with supernatural undertones than a “true” X-Files movie. The first instalment appeared while the show was still popular, and handled more or less the same themes and type of storyline. The sequel, on the other hand, has appeared, let’s admit it, a little too late, and instead of doing, shall we say, “more of the same”, Carter decided to give the movie a little “twist” and make it more grounded to reality than I had expected. OK, so the villains’ plot, when revealed, is both ludicrous and fantastic (in the sense that it belongs to fantasy), but it isn’t as science-fiction oriented as a fan of the TV show would have wanted. If the movie does something right, it would be that it knows that it isn’t on the same league as neither the show nor the first film, and thus decides to do its best at providing with thrills and lots of – not so fantastic – mystery. The movie is low on CGI, explosions and gunshots (actually, I think a gun is never used in the whole film), and works because it feels real. This is an old-fashioned movie that could have been crafted equally – or maybe more – successfully fifty years ago, and although it doesn’t feel like an X-Files movie, it works as a thriller with supernatural stuff here and there.

The X-Files sequel is a decent motion picture, but those expecting an “event movie” will definitely be disappointed by this movie. There are no action scenes, computer-generated effects, car chases or aliens in here – all this film tries to do is to present with a suitably mysterious plot and lots of talking, character-and-plot building scenes and a couple of weird visions here and there to entertain its audience. I have to admire the fact that Carter managed to entertain me with so little action and such a small quantity of Scully-Mulder scenes, but I just can’t fully recommend the movie. This sequel should have been made five years ago, and I’m pretty sure that, if made at that time, Carter and his team would have given us a “truer” X-Files movie, something featuring more familiar versions of Mulder and Scully. Or maybe I’m wrong. After all, I’ve never been a fan of The X-Files, so maybe this movie will work for those who “want to believe.”

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