The X-Files: I Want to Believe

“I don’t work with Fox Mulder anymore…I don’t work with the FBI.” A world of Sci-Fi fans wished otherwise, and they got their wish with the new Chris Carter directed film The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

The character who spoke these words in the dawn of the film, Dr. Dana Scully (no longer holding the title “Agent”), played by Gillian Anderson, was joined by former X-files TV co-star David Duchovny. The two actors reprised their roles as Mulder and Scully, probably for the last time, to satisfy an audience who 11 years after the first season of the Fox series are still hoping “the Truth is out there” for these two enigmatic former FBI agents.

The 9-season X-files series evolved over its run, and explored cases of the paranormal –ghosts, psychics, cannibals, carnival freaks, clones, the Bermuda triangle, and most notably: Aliens from outer space. I Want to Believe is no exception in theme. The FBI is working a case that would have been deemed an “X-File,” and the new kids in the Bureau can’t quite cut it with their brutal skepticism. They have a missing Agent on their hands, and a former-pedophile Catholic priest who is giving them psychic visions of where to dig up dismembered body parts. It’s all too much for these non-believers… enter Mulder and Scully.

The plot of I Want to Believe is a little bit diluted from the “trust no one” twists of the TV series. Scully, now a Doctor at a religious children’s hospital is very involved in the case of a young patient with a rare brain disease. This story feels drawn out and takes focus away from the murder mystery at hand. This added plot twist leaves the viewer longing for a moment when Mulder and Scully would reclaim their FBI status, guns in hand, flashing badges and boasting their all-powerful, all-knowing authority to criminals as they have done so many times before—but alas, no gun-strapping, no badge flashing, no ass-kicking return to their roots. Instead, Scully, always the straight man to Mulder’s sexy-and-eccentric attitude, kept pushing him to make the choice to step away from FBI and the case. We do see a little bit of unexpected action in a return by Walter Skinner, played by Mitch Pileggi, the duo’s former superior and current “big-wig” at the FBI. He actually totes a gun and gives a fresh breath of life to the end of the film.

The last important piece: the love story that had developed between Mulder and Scully. It had a slightly odd dynamic. They can lie in bed together, even make reference to the former child they conceived together (although through some Alien involvement), yet they still only refer to each other by last name. It did, however, seem right to play down the romance and not have it peak all over again as it did in the series, rather have it simply be. With one great kiss, it finally seemed that the tension between the two had relinquished its grip a little, and maybe in the future they can finally live happily ever after…until the truth, or “darkness” as Skully puts it, finds them again.

Though we may never know the truth about Mulder’s abducted sister, or how Scully is somehow qualified as a “medical doctor” to perform every obscure sugery or autopsy at any given time and place, I Want to Believe is a satisfying climax to this geek-chic series. I hope the fans can rest easy with the place Mulder and Scully forever take in their green-blooded hearts.

0 out of 4 on the SuckOmeter – This film doesn’t suck!