The X-Files: I Want to Believe was my most anticipated movie of the summer. I’m an unabashed fan of The X-Files and an even more bigger fan of the Scully character, so you know I was waiting for it: I wanted to believe.
If this was an episode of the series, and not a summer flick, it would’ve felt right at home in the seventh season of the show. The first three seasons were brilliant. The fourth and fifth seasons occurred at the show’s height of popularity with the fifth season anticipating the first theatrical film. After the first movie, the underrated Fight the Future, the show began its slide to mediocrity. The sixth season was a let down. The seventh season had the cast wanting out. The eighth and ninth seasons were the show in decline both as a pop culture leader and a good story. In the age of George W Bush, the fucktard president, the government spying on you isn’t a bug it’s a feature, so being paranoid is actually recognizing the truth.
So, I Want to Believe is a seventh season episode on the big screen. We have the dynamics of Scully and Mulder already outed as a couple (the noromo in me hates it). Their relationship colored by their love for each other. We have the story with hints at religion and faith which signifies a very Scully-centric film. She always has to explore the meaning of her faith in both the natural world of science and the supernatural world of paranormal activities, and she comes back to believing in herself as Mulder does, too. We have the point of view of the series shifting to Scully. In season seven, David Duchovny wanted out and slowly drifted away from Fox Mulder, and the series began to focus on Gillian Anderson and Scully.
This film was all Scully’s. She’s the first of the couple to be shown. And she was doing what we all knew she would be doing after the show ended: a doctor saving lives. When you watch it and feel the emotion of the ending to both the show and the characters, you end up knowing now that The X-Files was as much about Scully as it was about Mulder. She was, in the Pilot, the person that introduces you to the show. She is the heart of the relationship of Mulder and Scully swinging from non-believer/sceptic to a believer in Mulder. She’s just plain awesome. And to find that a summer flick devoting time to the female lead is jarring especially one so intellectual.
And that’s what was wrong with the film. It was not a summer movie. Like The Dark Knight its story is suited for darker evenings than the sunny skies of July. The exploration of faith and relationships, the lack of action, and wordiness of the film add up to a December prestige film rather than a summer blockbuster. And I was ready for a summer blockbuster. I wanted aliens, time travelers or ESP’ers. What I got was religion again, which as the series waned bored me. I needed them to chase something and that something to be more mysterious and harder to explain than a real serial killer.
But I got Scully. And I got Mulder. Both of them on the big screen made me happy. This was their swan song. Pairing this film with the first, you’ll find the wide range of stories inherent in the show. Only thing was it was a summer film not an episode on the television.
2 of 5 stars.
