X-Files: I Want to Believe

[internetbrendan 0]

Hollywood had 10 years after the first movie and 8 years after the end of the series to make a decent sequel. Instead it seems a bunch of producers sifted through a box of fanfics, picked the least outrageous (read: boring and pointless), and stretched into a feature film. But Mulder has a beard now so you know things have changed! This movie feels like when you have a dream about a show you've watched and upon waking up you think "that was stupid".

[Warble2850 28]

Nothing will ever do more damage to the integrity of the X-Files than "The Truth"(the finale) did. That or the entire 9th season.

[tick0 4]

I love the part when Scully is doing "Research" on stem cells and googles it!

[tick0 4]

 

 

[Nasher 29]

It was just so boring in it's steadfast belief that people who like the X-files would want a movie with no aliens, no monsters, no well defined antagonist, no black oil and only scant references to Skinner, Mulder's sister and best of all Mulder & Scully as a couple oh! and 100% more pedophiles... all the magic was there.

[Snake 165]

I was digging in the crates here and saw someone recommended this - this movie would be perfect for the podcast. I am genuinely curious how it got made, too. The script makes no sense, the end half of the movie gets really weird, there is little reference to the show...I don't understand why they chose this for the script.

 

SPOILER - Plus it's super religious and the villain is a pedophile priest. I mean come on....

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

As a HUGE fan of the show and someone who really enjoyed the first movie, I was of course enormously disappointed by this failed attempt at a film. However, I don't think it would make a good episode of the podcast. It's just a big pile of boredom and failure-derived sadness. It's nothing but a source of frustration for fans of the show, and for people who aren't fans, it's a huge pile of "who gives a fuck?" I actually listened to the commentary on this and it was clear that Chris Carter, the writer and director, had no clue what to do with the story and, at least in my opinion, should have let another director (and maybe even another writer) take the reigns. I mean, I love a lot of the episodes Carter directed, but some of them were misses and it's not like there was a lack of talent in the X-Files pool of writers and directors. I mean, Kim Manners? Vince Gilligan? Give me a break.

[seanotron 2307]

I agree with Elitist Prick. This just isn't bad enough to make a good episode. I think it was more disappointing to X-Files fans than anyone else. It was basically an extended, middling episode.

[RyanSz 3140]

This movie was weird as Carter stated he wanted to make a movie like the old standalone episodes of The X-Files that didn't involve a conspiracy or the larger arcs of the show, but then he makes this movie which is dull and not too supernatural. The creepiest thing about this movie is the pedo commune where the priest lives.

[jarrycanada 2483]

There is a x-files comic con panel this year, not sure if there is something in the works or if they're just doing a reunion. I hated the last x files movie it was the worst. You can't do a x files film with out aliens. I can't even remember how the tv series ended mind you they drag it on forever. Ohh well.

 

I can't think of anything really all that funny about any of the X files movies for a good show.

 

it's too bad what they did to that show. it could have been better.

[Snake 165]

Maybe it wouldn't work then? I remember thinking WTF the entire time I was watching it, but I had a really hard time paying attention. I would just zone out and there would be a pedophile priest hallucinating, then i would zone out and it was this other weird thing. The plot didn't hold together at all. There are certainly better movies though

[seanotron 2307]

X-Files should have ended once David D decided to leave, but they tried to limp along and we got those lousy 2 seasons with the T-1000. Season 6 is really my cutoff. Season 7 is 50/50, though Bablyon AD is still one of my favorites, maybe because it's the show making fun of itself and they did it so well.

 

Still, I understand why they wanted to a non-alien X-Files movie. The alien plotline was so played out by the end. They wanted to return to the spooky one-offs from the early years but they just didn't pull it off.

[jarrycanada 2483]

I agree Seanotron. fox should of ended the show once David Duchovny wanted to leave the show. as it was the main story arc after all. but that's television. also who could forget the smoking man, aka cancer man. once you killed him off you had no good villain

.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

I actually agree that the alien story was played out, even by season 7, so a non-alien, monster of the week-type movie could definitely have worked... if done right. This was not. There were certainly very out-there, supernatural-heavy episodes in the series that didn't have any conspiracy or extraterrestrial elements to them.

 

I also missed the John Doggett character, at least in the form the movie took, taking place very much in the world of the FBI. What made this even worse was that the Xzibit and Amanda Peet characters took the exact same role as Doggett would have; in that they provided opposition and support and motivation for Mulder and Scully. Hell, even some of the dialogue spoken by Xzibit could have been put in Doggett's mouth... it would just have been 100 times better because Robert Patrick is really fucking good at acting. Xzibit is not.

[seanotron 2307]

I actually agree that the alien story was played out, even by season 7, so a non-alien, monster of the week-type movie could definitely have worked... if done right. This was not. There were certainly very out-there, supernatural-heavy episodes in the series that didn't have any conspiracy or extraterrestrial elements to them.

 

I also missed the John Doggett character, at least in the form the movie took, taking place very much in the world of the FBI. What made this even worse was that the Xzibit and Amanda Peet characters took the exact same role as Doggett would have; in that they provided opposition and support and motivation for Mulder and Scully. Hell, even some of the dialogue spoken by Xzibit could have been put in Doggett's mouth... it would just have been 100 times better because Robert Patrick is really fucking good at acting. Xzibit is not.

 

Robert Patrick is good, but I could not attach to that character (or the Reyes character). Including them in the movie would have just pissed me off, because it would remind me of the two terrible years they were on the show.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

As a HUGE fan of the show and someone who really enjoyed the first movie, I was of course enormously disappointed by this failed attempt at a film. However, I don't think it would make a good episode of the podcast. It's just a big pile of boredom and failure-derived sadness. It's nothing but a source of frustration for fans of the show, and for people who aren't fans, it's a huge pile of "who gives a fuck?" I actually listened to the commentary on this and it was clear that Chris Carter, the writer and director, had no clue what to do with the story and, at least in my opinion, should have let another director (and maybe even another writer) take the reigns. I mean, I love a lot of the episodes Carter directed, but some of them were misses and it's not like there was a lack of talent in the X-Files pool of writers and directors. I mean, Kim Manners? Vince Gilligan? Give me a break.

I can't believe this came out five years ago, I thought it was more recent. Anyway, at the time, Kim Manners was balls-deep in :Supernatural" and Gilligan had just started "Breaking Bad". Looking at what he's done before and since, it looks like Carter was the only one that NEEDED "X-Files" anymore, and wow, did that thing ever shit the bed. It finished it's run at around 20 million, which is 10 million less than what the first film OPENED at. I think "Despicable Me 2" has made more money in the time that it took me to write "I think 'Despicable Me 2' has made more money".

[jarrycanada 2483]

time flys when your having fun, or getting older so it seems.Carter got into a big legal lawsuit over the syndication rights to the xfiles so thats why it wasn't on tv for so long in reruns. I think most of that is cleared up now. so he can try and make money off of it.

[justinmh05 1968]

I watched this tonight for the first time, and I have to say it didn't bother me. Not as good as Fight the Future, but I wasn't bored or anything.

 

My only gripes were the shoehorned-in Mulder and Scully romance trouble, and the weird choice to have Amanda Peet and Xhibit basically play Reyes and Doggett.

[denimgremlin 1179]

it'll be a different kind of discussion but I'd rather hear what Kumail has to say about this movie when he eventually covers it on X-Files Files. I agree with Justinh05, it's only bad when compared to the series and the other movie which were way better. I'd like to hear what someone who knows the show inside and out has to say

[justinmh05 1968]

it'll be a different kind of discussion but I'd rather hear what Kumail has to say about this movie when he eventually covers it on X-Files Files. I agree with Justinh05, it's only bad when compared to the series and the other movie which were way better. I'd like to hear what someone who knows the show inside and out has to say

 

I actually think I enjoyed it more than any episode from season 7 through season 9. For me, the show jumped the shark when Scully went to Africa for an episode that led to nothing at the beginning of season 7. The seams started showing at that point.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

No. I need closure. This film completely deserves the HDTGM treatment.

 

The endless Google product placement, the horrible (and unnecessary) CGI, and the meandering plot essentially unravels nine seasons of fairly great television show. What was the point of this film? Who asked for it? Even the producers seem to know that they fucked up royally, with those horribly cheesy crew photos during the end credits telegraphing the end of their gravy train ride.

 

The worst part of watching this celluloid turd was realizing that the DVD extra with the SFX dude reveals more about the plot than the actually movie does. Oh, and Scully solves the case with a simple Google search at the end of the movie.

 

I want to believe, my ass!

[TheShanster 11]

This is the worst and most disappointing movie I've ever seen! There were no aliens! Oddly enough, The newest Indiana Jones movie came out around the same time and there were aliens in that. I guess they showed up to the wrong movie! Lol

[justinmh05 1968]

But the X-Files was always about more than aliens. Hell, there were two-times more Monster of the Week episodes than alien episodes.

 

I guess people also forget how much so many of them hated the alien mythology by the end of the series!