FILM REVIEW: "The X-Files" was one of the biggest and greatest science-fiction television shows ever produced; to see its central concept and execution so poorly dealt with in this second film, and at the hands of series creator Chris Carter himself no less, is an absolute travesty. "I Want To Believe" is for a lack of a better description, boring, in every department. The story is creepy in its idea, but its execution is lame, subdued and pedestrian. The actors, including the normally good David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, look like they are going through the motions to collect their hefty pay cheques. The first film at least had an epic scale and an energetic enthusiasm that tied in nicely from the show even if it did not satisfy those fans who wanted answers to the series' most frustrating mysteries. "I Want To Believe" does not inspire you to do so in its story or plight. As a fan, this film is a devastating disappointment. As an average movie-goer, the film is totally forgettable.Chris Carter, in one of his few right decisions on this film, chose to do a standalone story which allows the film to ditch most of the built up backstory which heavily bogged down the series in its final few seasons. Aside from a few references here and there, this film has no need to retread old ground to explain why things are the way they are now. Mulder and Scully are now reunited on an X-Files style case when an FBI agent is mysteriously abducted, and convicted pedophile Father Joe (Billy Connolly) begins to have psychic visions of her fate. Father Joe's questionable past and his incoherent explanations of what is happening make Mulder and Scully retread some of their old sceptic versus believer grounds, but eventually they come together to solve the mystery of what is happening.
The main thrust of the film is sound, allowing Carter and his team to create a story in the shape of the old "monster-of-the-week" episodes from which the series became famous. Going down this road makes this film somewhat simpler than the alien conspiracy storyline of the previous film, giving it free reign to potentially explore fresh territory. The problem though is that it does not go anywhere interesting, in either a dramatic, character, visual or thrilling way. Mulder and Scully have numerous scenes where they spend agonising over dialogue about why they are so different from one another, and why they should or should not be pursuing the case, making for some very lengthy and dull expository scenes which is odd given the main concept should have freed the film from this problem. It is these scenes that are at times the hardest to watch because Duchovny and Anderson look like they are struggling to get through it all and still look interested. Their characters almost appear to be pale shadows of their former selves, and that is sad and hard to watch if you are a fan.Given the original X-Files creative team's ability to create wonderful, rich drama with great characterisations in a paranormal and spooky context, this film under Carter's leadership is strangely and sadly devoid of these great qualities that helped to make the series so entertaining. Scully has a subplot involving a young boy she is trying to save that is not well connected to the main story at all to the point where one has to question why it is even in the film in the first place. The spooky, paranormal focus of the story largely remains unspooky and boring, if somewhat creepy towards the end. Billy Connolly does his best as Father Joe but he has not been given much to work with; the signature shot of him weeping blood is meant to be creepy but is ultimately a footnote barely worth remembering. And the film is sorely missing the supporting characters from the series, except for AD Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) who in effect has a thankless extended cameo towards the end that exists only for novelty value.Carter is not a good visualist; the film is not imaginatively shot, giving the appearance of a two-part television episode as opposed to a film with flat images that do nothing to inspire the visual senses. The film is boring from the outset just from the way it looks.The worst thing of all is that everything about this film is so boring and flat. Twenty minutes in to the film you will be looking at your watch or ready to switch it off and do something else. Being a fan of The X-Files, it is sad and hard to see such a quality franchise being treated in this way. It is evident from watching this film that Chris Carter and the original crew behind The X-Files are creatively spent on this franchise and need to move on. And if there are to be more X-Files movies, someone else needs to do them.TECHNICAL REVIEW: There is nothing to fault with the transfer. The video transfer contains film grain but that appears to be how the film was shot as opposed to a transfer fault. The colours tend to be more monochromatic (again by the film's visual design being set in the snow), but the visuals are faithfully represented on this DVD. The audio transfer is top-notch, creating an eerie atmosphere through the surrounds. Overall, a great transfer.EXTRAS REVIEW: A handful of extras round out this DVD. The major extra is the audio commentary from writer/director Chris Carter and writer/producer Frank Spotnitz. They provide scene specific detailed commentary for what is happening on screen and how they went about getting it in camera, but the commentary is not particularly interesting in delivery; it's more a case of "this is how we did this" or "we got this guy to do that who worked on every X-Files episode". This is exemplified in the end credits where Carter chose to put stills of everyone who worked on the production over the credits and they both spend the entire time talking about that. Good to honour the work but not terribly interesting. There are two featurettes; the first is useless of Carter talking about how Ford supplied hybrid vehicles for the production, and the second is a slightly humorous overview of all the dead bodies created for the film by the special makeup effects crew. There are some deleted scenes, an extended gag reel, a music video and English subtitles. A decent extras package if not that extensive or interesting.BOTTOM LINE: Rent it if you're a fan, don't bother otherwise.x files Magicx files brokex files filmsx files Statusx files Lucky Criminal Minds DVD boxset,Criminal Minds DVD Cheap,Criminal Minds DVD buy,Criminal Minds DVD discount,Criminal Minds DVD
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