Film review: The X-Files - I Want to Believe

Aug 7 2008 By Steve Stratford

THE biggest mystery about The X-Files: I Want to Believe (15, 100 mins) is why they bothered to make it.

Six years after the TV series ended, creator Chris Carter decided it was time to refresh the franchise. He should have just turned over and gone back to sleep.

It’s one of the dullest movies I’ve seen in some considerable time. Nobody looks like they want to be in the film, and there’s no evidence that much energy was put into making it. It’s as if composer Mark Snow forgot to write any actual music for it; it’s lacking any dynamism or urgency from both behind and in front of the camera; and the story is so flimsy you could tell it in the space of 45 minutes.

Guest star Billy Connolly is wasted in a thankless role as a psychic paedophile priest, while David Duchovny and particularly Gillian Anderson fail to recapture the chemistry between their characters.

The story concentrates more on Mulder and Scully as characters than telling an interesting, exciting thriller. Indeed there’s very little indication of anything unusual going on until close to the end. Scully’s dilemma of trying to reconcile her Catholic faith with the non-compatible extremes of medical science is an interesting character development, but do we really need it rammed down our throats for 75% of the film?

I was a big fan of the TV series but if this is all Carter can come up with after all these years and all this expectation, then he should not be given any second chances. Carter is steadfastly not a movie director, his talents lie on the small screen, and the fact he decided to ditch aliens and monsters for a routine thriller about diabolical Russian doctors shows that the budget wasn’t there to give an X-Files relaunch what it deserved. 2/10