The X Files: I Want to Believe

For someone who never missed an episode of The X Files during its run on Fox, I was somewhat surprised by my complete disinterest in this film when it came out last Summer. Maybe the magic had worn off? Or maybe there were just better films out at the time? Whatever the reason, I made sure to make a point of watching the latest X Files movie on DVD. Well I just saw it yesterday while waiting out a snow storm and it wasn't bad at all. Though I feel I should have done a little homework beforehand. I couldn't quite remember how the series ended so there were some story elements I was a bit confused about. What happened to William? Other than that, there's very little connection between the movie and the series. It's very much a stand-alone episode, and an above-average one at that. Still, I feel The X Files was best when tackling the mythology story line. The freak-of-the-week stuff wasn't always bad, but still felt like filler. This movie sort of has that feeling. It works well as a crime drama but is far from being an epic watershed moment in the series. If the film had a different title, Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd could have handled this script just fine with minimal reworks. Mulder and Scully's past experience and insights into the paranormal are rather inconsequential during this investigation. Given the film's poor performance, I doubt we'll be seeing another X-Files films any time soon. Which is kind of a shame because I think there's still some territory they could cover.