The X Files: I Want to Believe
| Year: | 2008 |
| Production Co: | Ten Thirteen Productions |
| Studio: | 20th Century Fox |
| Director: | Chris Carter |
| Writer: | Chris Carter/Frank Spotnitz |
| Cast: | David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Alvin Joiner, Billy Connolly, Mitch Pileggi |
Witness a cultural institution long past its prime. Was anybody still watching The X Files when it finished in 2002? Scully (Anderson) and Mulder (Duchovny) had a baby together and the big send-off was a dodgy court case. After all the giant UFOs, alien abductions and global conspiracies that was the most exciting ending they could come up with?
With the successful Californication under his belt (so to speak), Duchovny didn't need a Stallone-like stab at his former glory, which leaves a long-absent Anderson, former TV god creator Chris Carter and 20th Century Fox, probably anticipating a bad year given their other big mid-year release in 2008 was M Night Shyamalan's zany family comedy The Happening.
Gone are the aliens and conspiracies. The Bureau bring Scully and Mulder back in because of their record to deal with a case of a missing agent in the frozen far north of America. The former has left the ghosts and monsters of the FBI behind and is quite happy as a doctor, the latter locked away with a bushy beard and whole lot of bitterness at the way the FBI treated him (while nobody was watching anymore).
When a psychic paedophile priest (Billy Connolly) leads the local law to clues about the missing woman, it becomes the acid test and subtitle of the movie – it's both Mulder and Scully's last chance to believe in the paranormal by throwing their lot in which a disgraced pervert and believing he'll help them crack the case.
You'll have heard how boring and disappointing I Want To Believe is and it is, but not that much. The organ harvest plotline is actually quite good even though not enough's done with it. But all in all it's a big case of too little way too late, and this is one conspiracy that should have stayed buried.
With the successful Californication under his belt (so to speak), Duchovny didn't need a Stallone-like stab at his former glory, which leaves a long-absent Anderson, former TV god creator Chris Carter and 20th Century Fox, probably anticipating a bad year given their other big mid-year release in 2008 was M Night Shyamalan's zany family comedy The Happening.
Gone are the aliens and conspiracies. The Bureau bring Scully and Mulder back in because of their record to deal with a case of a missing agent in the frozen far north of America. The former has left the ghosts and monsters of the FBI behind and is quite happy as a doctor, the latter locked away with a bushy beard and whole lot of bitterness at the way the FBI treated him (while nobody was watching anymore).
When a psychic paedophile priest (Billy Connolly) leads the local law to clues about the missing woman, it becomes the acid test and subtitle of the movie – it's both Mulder and Scully's last chance to believe in the paranormal by throwing their lot in which a disgraced pervert and believing he'll help them crack the case.
You'll have heard how boring and disappointing I Want To Believe is and it is, but not that much. The organ harvest plotline is actually quite good even though not enough's done with it. But all in all it's a big case of too little way too late, and this is one conspiracy that should have stayed buried.