2008 Blockbuster 13 "The X-Files: I Want to Believe"

You may have noticed I've been carpet bombing CWSS with movie reviews. That's because I'm catching up. And I want to catch up because I got a free pass to a sneak preview of this, the second X-Files movie! Yes, I am just that cool.

I knew, from the trailer, and from pre-film interviews, that this film would not focus on the aliens-invading-US-government-conspiracy-black-oil-bees-whatnot mythology that dominated the series and served as the back drop of the previous film, "Fight the Future". This would be a stand alone tale, of horror in particular. I also had heard that the budget was very tight. Wow. They weren't kidding. It's been a very long time since I've seen a film with this much studio power behind it that felt so handmade. That's not a knock against it. The scope of the story doesn't require CG characters or giant tidal waves crashing into New York.

What does it require? Well, time has continued to pass in the X-Files universe after the giant pile of dog crap they called the series finale. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is a doctor full time. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is living off the grid with no contact with the FBI.

Then an FBI agent goes missing, and a self-professed psychic (the ever-wonderful Billy Connolly) comes forward with information about the case gleaned through visions. As a nice touch, there is no cutaway to his visions in some sort of dreamy, blurry, acid-inspired haze. All we know about the visions is what Father Joe (he's a former priest) tells us. So there remains a level of uncertainty about his psychic ability.

It's that uncertainty that makes the agent in charge of the case (played by Amanda Peet) come to Scully, because, presumably, she knows how to contact Mulder.

From there on out it plays pretty much like an episode of the show, and in the best ways. There's a law enforcement officer who doesn't like Mulder (played by a gruff Xzibit). There's a spooky cadre of bad guys who are doing things we can't quite see. There's a ticking clock. And there's the dialogue. The best episodes of the show had great dialogue scenes between Mulder and Scully, and this one doesn't disappoint. There's just the right combination of philosophical whonking and quips. And Connolly in particular does a great job of getting under Scully's skin.

Fans of the show will, I suspect, love it. People walking in cold might wonder what the big deal is, because, as I said, there's not a huge amount of production value on the screen.

Personally, I hope that the film does well enough to reignite the franchise and let us return to (and, more importantly, finish) the alien mythology storyline.