Last Updated on August 5, 2021
THE BLACK SHEEP is an ongoing column featuring different takes on films that either the writer HATED, but that the majority of film fans LOVED, or that the writer LOVED, but that most others LOATH. We’re hoping this column will promote constructive and geek fueled discussion. Dig in!
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)
Directed by Chris Carter
“At its heart, this feels like one of the great standalone episodes: it has the suspense, the action, the intrigue, and horror.”
In honor of the massive snowstorms blanketing, well, just about everywhere, I tried to think of snow-drenched movies. There are the obvious go-to ones like The Thing, Fargo, and James Bond (oh, about all of ‘em have snow, skies, and babes), but after I got to thinking, the last X-Files movie stuck out. Initially, it stood out simply due to cold, dark whiteness that dominates its look, but quickly I started to wonder. Was it as mediocre as when it first debuted? Was it the death nail in the franchise? Was it Mulder’s beard that made it suck? Or was it even bad to begin with?
I’ll go ahead and make my bold claim for the week: X-Files: I Want to Believe isn’t as sucky as you recall. On my second viewing since outside the magical big screen, I found Mulder and Scully’s second adventure a pretty solid suspense film that just happens to be based on a TV show. If it wasn’t for the show, I’d say it is a nice, tight singular movie. But that’s impossible to do because it’s not as good as the TV series nor as good as the 1998 release, but if you can view it alone, it stands on as a solid piece of filmmaking. Even with Fox’s crappy beard that he sports. And Scully’s bad attitude. Seriously, she needed some drinks to loosen up. She looks about as fun to be around as visiting a nursing home with a hangover and a decaying hooker in your trunk.
Now I understand why people bitch about I Want to Believe. Yes, it has nothing to do with the mythology – no aliens, no government experiments, no creatures. And I wanted those things too. However, sometimes it’s nice to get the unexpected. I get it that it’d be easier for fans to dig this outing more if three or five films already existed. Fans can look past a mistake if a plethora of choices existed. Sure, there’s that TV show component…you know the one that went for nine seasons and had 1,415 episodes (or something like that). But there is always something different about a big-screen versus small-screen adventures.
Take something like Star Trek, which is the premier example of how to elevate things from one medium to the next. Things look better, newer, shinier when refitted. However, if producers get cheap, you end up with the Next Generation syndrome where the films looked as fake and hollow as they did on TV. I Want to Believe (terrible title btw…I can’t defend that) managed to avoid the cheapie feel even without a budget. Director, writer, creator Chris Carter seemed to do well without the big bucks although it seems like they could’ve been a little more resourceful when it came to the story.
I could make the argument that this is the character piece in the X files saga. The one that finally defines Mulder and Scully. After all, we learn that they hooked up and got some lovin’ on. But damn, fans went through all those seasons to see if they would even kiss and then suddenly boom! Not only did Mulder make it first base, dude knocked a grand slam as they were once pregnant. It’s easy to bitch that we see their relationship AFTER it peaked, but it makes sense since years had gone by and things had happened. Deal with it. Okay that’s a scam, but…sometimes you just have to look past little things like that and enjoy it for what it is. It’s a movie. It’s make believe and all that.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a little preachy at times with the whole faith versus science routine. They always hinted about such things before, but this feels a little too heavy-handed. However, once again just look past it as it creates a moral center that the show sometimes lacked. At its heart, this feels like one of the great standalone episodes: it has the suspense, the action, the intrigue, and horror. It has an Irish psychic pedophile priest, some foreign organ robbers, and a rapper FBI agent. I miss the Smoking Man and the black gooey stuff as much as the next fan, but dig what Carter did. He created an effective singular story. Let’s just hope it’s not the final say in the saga before they reboot it with the Twilight kids or something.
Disagree? Get the DVD and discover for yourself.
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