Review of The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008) by Brendand — 27 Jul 2008

Any way you slice it, this movie is a disaster from top to bottom. The one good part that even the scroogiest of critics point to is Gillian Anderson's performance. Yes, it's fine, but when one is working with such a god-awful script, who cares? The banter is muddled at best, and the plot is a pale imitation of the show's lamest of episodes.

But none of that would matter if something -- anything -- worked. Yet it's doesn't. [SPOILER ALERT] Everything, including the chiming of the theme when a picture of George W. Bush is seen outside an FBI conference room (which made me say aloud in the theater, "Well what the hell did THAT prove?"), is ham-fisted in a way that makes "Walker Texas Ranger" look like first-rate drama.

And giving Skinner three lines (the second of which is a repeat of the first) is beyond hokey; why bring Mitch Pileggi back at all if that's all you were going to do? "I Want To Believe" doesn't ruin the show's legacy; most of those episodes are still insanely watchable a decade and a half later.

But, like the Twin Peaks flick "Fire Walk With Me," though it has the same characters, the writers apparently lost the plot somewhere, and this version is yet another piece that proves "Star Trek" was about the only show that was ever able to make the leap from small-screen sci-fi to big-screen action and not totally suck.