Title: The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Director: Chris Carter
Writers: Frank Spotnitz, Chris Carter
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet, Xzibit
Rating: PG-13

When it comes time to make a movie based on a genre property ("Star Trek," "The X-Files," "X-Men," etc.) an intimidating question on the filmmakers' minds is, "Do we make this film for everyone and hope the fans still like it or do we make it for the fans and hope they bring friends?" Filmmakers tend to lean towards the former; the theory being that the fans are going to come to the movie regardless and the obstacle is luring in everyone else.

It's a sound theory, assuming the fans are still... fans. The problem with this new X-Files film, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," is that it was made almost exclusively for casual viewers of the series, or people with only a cursory knowledge of it, leaving very little to excite long-time viewers of the show.

I don't consider myself a hardcore X-Files fan even though I've seen the entire series and own four of the seasons as well as the 1998 film "The X-Files: Fight the Future." I've never been to a convention, read an X-Files book, argued plot points on a forum, played the collectable card game or written fan fiction. I've only watched every episode from all nine seasons. Maybe that's why I couldn't generate a lot of excitement about a new X-Files film, especially one that was being touted as a stand-alone story taking place outside the greater alien conspiracy mythology.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson return as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

When television shows make the jump to the big screen they need to be bigger and better than the best the show ever offered. They need to leave lasting scars on the characters and the story. "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" ends up feeling like a mediocre two-part episode of the show that neither moves the characters or the larger story forward.

So where are Mulder and Scully when we start this new adventure? Scully is a physician in a Catholic children's hospital, working diligently to save the life of a boy named "Christian" no less, and Mulder is a bit of a recluse decorating his room with strange articles from the newspaper and growing an impressive Spider-Hole-Saddam beard.

With what these characters have seen and been through I expected them to be in one of two places by now: huddled, shivering in a cave awaiting the end of all things or deep in the jungle reading poetry to an army of cannibalistic followers. Then again I'm of the opinion that a majority of movies could be improved dramatically by dropping their characters into a Heart of Darkness formula. The point is that despite their first-hand knowledge of supernatural phenomenon and a possible looming alien apocalypse, they seem to have adjusted to normal life pretty well.

Mulder and Scully get pulled back into F.B.I. work not through a reopening of the X-Files but through a search for a missing female F.B.I. agent lead by ASAC Dakota Whitney (Amada Peet) and Agent Mosley Drummy (Alvin 'Xzbit' Joiner). The supernatural component that requires Mulder's expertise is that a purported psychic claims to have a connection to the victim and has lead the investigators to a severed arm belonging to a male. This film has phenomenon from the entire series to pull from - aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, zombies, killer insects, vengeful house cats and a host of other non-classifiable monsters and maladies - and they choose... a psychic! When it comes to the X-Files, a psychic falls into the lame end of the "unexplained" spectrum.

Trailer for "The X-Files: I Want to Believe."

Remember when I said that Scully kept busy trying to save a little boy named Christian at the Catholic hospital? Well it just so happens the psychic involved in this investigation is an ex-priest pedophile and there-in lies much of the film's conflict. It turns into a standard is-he-or-isn't-he storyline that later veers into "Kiss the Girls" and "Along Came a Spider" territory when another woman is abducted.

Mulder's beaten-to-death weakness for all missing persons because of his sister's abduction - a plot point already worn thin and resolved on the show - drives him to continue the search for the F.B.I. agent but Scully's focus continues to be the sick boy right into the third act. The story just isn't grand enough to warrant a film. Compared to the previous X-Files movie, "I Want to Believe" feels painfully small and irrelevant. Much of the fan service comes in the form of Mulder and Scully's relationship with each other and almost nothing is said about the events of the series or the other movie.

Only a couple of things really bothered me about the film, other than its lack of ambition. Foremost is everything about the character of Agent Mosley Drummy. His only purpose is to be an obstacle and skeptic to Mulder and Xzbit's portrayal of this character is equally shallow and boring. I wanted Mulder to grab the guy and scream, "If you knew what I know about this world you'd be crying in the fetal position surrounded by our own urine!" After nine years and a film that ended with an alien mothership bursting through the Antarctic ice, is there any room in The X-Files for a skeptic? The other notable offense is the presence of some poor special effects work in a scene that required little more than a rudimentary stunt.

"The X-Files: I Want to Believe" isn't a bad film but the case they are investigating feels like a convenient store hold-up in the greater scheme of things. As a fan of the show it was nice to see the characters again and the people who watched the show for the relationship between Mulder and Scully may enjoy it more than the people like me who watched it for the science fiction element. The problem is one of timing. It's been too long since the end of "The X-Files" to ride the declining momentum that the finale brought and it hasn't been long enough to feel nostalgic about it.

Join our discussion on this topic