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This was a year for comebacks. Carrie Bradshaw and her friends came back, Indiana Jones came back, Batman came back (stronger than ever) and Robert Downey Jr reinvented himself as a blockbuster leading man.
Hollywood loves a comeback, be it Hellboy or Mulder and Scully, and since comebacks normally mean a tidy sum of money from box office collections, Hollywood loves successful comebacks even more.
The new X-Files film begins intriguingly enough with a row of FBI agents rooting around in the snow while a long-haired man runs ahead of them and sniffer dogs attempt to assist with their search for...something. This is intercut with the abduction of a woman who manages to wound one of her attackers but is captured by his accomplice.
The FBI searchers led by agents Whitney (Amanda Peet) and Drummy (Xzibit) find a severed male arm, and that is their cue to catch up with Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) so that they can track down Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). You see, the man who led them to the severed arm is one Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly), a convicted paedophile who happens to have psychic visions that could lead them to the missing woman, who also happens to be an FBI agent.
The name of this movie is The X Files: I Want To Believe, which is quite a mouthful, to say the least. Unfortunately, the faith that is alluded to by the promotion of this film (as well as the history of the series) and the faith that is actually explored in its subject matter are far from same. Instead of chasing conspiracy theories or paranormal activity, this movie is essentially the search for a serial killer. At least on the surface.
Upon breaching the top layer we find other themes that involve dueling positions on experimental surgeries, the surprising (and not entirely convincing) revelation of the nature of Mulder and Scully's relationship, Mulder's inability to put the ghosts of his past to rest and Scully's questions and issues with her spiritual faith.
All of which should have made for a very interesting film yet somehow it is not. Because this feels more like a two-part, special edition of X Files the TV show rather than a stand-alone film.
Also, as episodes go, this is not one of the better ones. This type of subject matter is better handled by any of the procedural shows playing on television screens around the world right now. They have less shameless exposition, a better handle on building parallels between the primary and secondary stories and they try and avoid tacking on relationship angles because they know they will have to sustain that arc through the course of the series, or at the very least, the season.
David Duchovny is easy to watch and it seems that his recent appearance as the lead in a new television show has animated his Mulder a bit. The same however cannot be said for Gillian Anderson, who was quoted as saying that she had trouble getting back into character. It shows, and not in a good way.
Since this was not an expensive movie to make (by Hollywood's dizzying standards) it is not clear why the cast and creator Chris Carter (who also directed the film) returned for this tale. It certainly wasn't because of the creative high that they all got from putting together this forgettable yarn.
So if, at the end of it all, a second X Files movie came about solely because of economic reasons, is there any wonder that we have so little faith in our entertainment anymore? Maybe the die-hard fans would enjoy watching Mulder and Scully doing their thing one more time. The rest of us are better off waiting for it to come out on DVD. Or skipping it all together.
Rediff Rating: