The X-Files: I Want To Believe

I've had my doubts about this thing ever since rumors of it's planned production began circulating two years ago. Bringing it back six years after the show left the air with a whimper, after having overstayed it's welcome by three mediocre to bad seasons featuring an ever-more muddled and incomprehensible alien myth-arc?

Chris Carter may have dreamed up the X-Files, but the credit for it's most memorable shows belongs to Glen Morgan and James Wong. Now helming the franchise on his own, Carter seems to have been exposed as this franchise's equivalent to Rick Berman.

The film is currently being savaged by critics at rottentomates.com, with a few notable exceptions (Roger Ebert actually liked it ).

As a fan of seasons 1-5 of the series (and the first movie, which I liked), I'll go see this at a matinee. But my expectations have been appropriately lowered.

Star Trek films pretty much always got a bad ride from the critics, but the user reviews for it on IMDB are 98% postive so I'm keeping my hopes up.

Well, that certainly is a fucking kick ass movie poster, even if the film might end up being a pile of shit.

I want to care, really I do.

Ebert says 3.5 out of 4; I'm gonna see it.

I thought the first six seasons of the show were great. And I liked the first movie.

But the finale of season six should have been the end of the series, rather than a cliffhanger that left Mulder insane.

Season seven was mediocre but at least they ended it with a some sort of resolution and that could have been the end of it.

But no, it went on another season... and then yet another season.

I'm really not sure if I'm gonna see this new movie. Maybe if I have nothing better to do.

Just got back from seeing it. I missed at least a few minutes at the beginning and the experience was ruined by a woman who somehow and for some reason brought not one, not two, not three but 3.5 kids under 10 to the movie, with its obviously inappropriate levels of violence. Two of the born ones wouldn't shut up for more than five minutes and as if that weren't enough, she got on her cell phone at some point as well. :UA:

So that may have fatally tainted my enjoyment of the movie.

But I thought it was pretty wack.

As for Ebert giving it 3.5 stars, I'm guessing that at least 1.5 of those come from Gillian Anderson being in it. Another 1 comes from it appealing to his sensibilities re: Catholicism.

Well, it was basically just a long, average-quality episode of the series.

Which can be good or bad, depending on how you take it.

This isn't one I'd recommend shelling out theatre dollars for, but certainly worthy of a DVD rental.

I've got a couple of theater passes, but the effort of driving 10 miles and suffering thru crowds of assholic people makes it worth waiting for DVD.

I just acquired the first movie ( ) and I plan on watching it tonight... Are there any episodes of the series I should watch in order to enhance my enjoyment of I Want To Believe?

I haven't watched the entire series, but I think they made "I Want to Believe" with the idea that you didn't have to be familiar with the series.

I think all you need to know is some basic background: For years, Mulder and Scully investigated strange stuff for the FBI. Muller was the guy who bought into the weird-stuff explanations for things like aliens, psychic abilities, etc., and Scully was a medical doctor who was assigned to debunk Mulder's work and who remained skeptical despite seeing hundreds of things that defy scientific explanation. The two had an attraction that they eventually acted on.

Because the film revolves around psychics, you may want to compare it to episodes that have to do with psychics.

They include "Beyond the Sea," "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (which was really good, if I remember correctly).

I think characters from both were referenced briefly in "I Want to Believe."

But I don't know if seeing them will enhance your enjoyment of the movie, as I think that both were way better than the movie.

It'd kind of be the equivalent of watching TOS episodes like "Balance of Terror" and "City on the Edge of Forever" then seeing "ST:V."

Oh, and good luck with "Fight the Future." It's been a while since I saw it, but I don't think they did very much to make that accessible to someone who hadn't been immersed in the series.

Crowds? At the theatre I went to, which is, well, in the middle of nowhere, since I've been at my folks' for the weekend, there were a grand total of five other people in the theatre a day after the thing premiered.

It wouldn't at all surprise me if this was an attempt by FOX to see if the X-Files was still viable as, potentially, a television franchise. And from the audience turnout, I'm guessing the answer is no.

Well, its weekend gross was $10,200,000, according to Yahoo movies. Does that qualify as bombing?

I hear it bombed in its opening weekend take. Like 'Nemesis' bombed.

Honestly, I'm not too surprised.

Did anyone really want another X-Files? The show ran its course a long time ago and Chris Carter seemed to be the only one who couldn't understand that.

Heck, I used to be a huge fan and I'm just ambivalent about the movie. And I'm the target audience.

Considering the film only cost $30 million to make, I think you have to adjust your perspective appropriately. It will end up being profitable, once foreign box office is added in. But it may not be profitable enough to justify another one anytime soon. This pretty much may be the end of The X-Files.

I went to see it this morning (went to the $6 showing). Personally, I thought it was downright boring. I think they jumped around too much with the story too much. Fox and Mulder... its been done to death.

The movie was nothing more than a television style reunion show. In my opinion reunion shows are never that interesting to begin with. I think it has to be one of the worst summer movies that I have seen so far. I only hope that The Mummy is far better than this complete waste of time was.

We saw it last night. I found it reminiscient of Silence of the Lambs in a sort of "amateur hour" kind of way. Like Kyle said, it's basically an episode from the series padded out to movie length. Not horrible, not great, with enough salutes to the fanboys to keep it amusing. But both X-Files movies have now officially been lackluster. The series was brilliant for the first six seasons, then pretty much fell apart.

Ah well. It was good while it lasted. And Gillian Anderson still makes my insides go all funny, so what the hell.

I watched the first movie and while it wasn't bad, it wasn't good either. I might pass on the second movie. If I'm bored one day, I might catch a matinee if nothing else is playing.

Its budget was $30m, so I'd say no, it probbaly doesn't. It'll easily break even during its cinema run and probably make a half decent profit on DVD/blu-ray sales through the X Philes who just have to have it.

I think this is the problem. At the end of the 7th year they should have paid Duchovny a shit load of money and convinced him to do one more, final season of good Mulder and Scully episodes to wrap up the show. Instead you had two years of mediocre rubbish (no disrespect to Bob Patrick who I am a great fan of) and even Chris Carter himself, it seems, failed to appreciate that the X Files is about, and only ever will be about, Mulder's quest for the truth. If you take that away you have a flop. So, what did they do, tried to continue it and did a couple seasons of dross and then waited a further 6 years to properly bring back Mulder. Had Mulder been in a final, eighth season and they gone out on a high then chances are that 2 to 3 years later a popular X Files pic could have been made. But who cares about the X Files 8 years after Duchovny left?? Hell, I myself was a major X Files fan myself, but this summer the movies I was eager to see in July were Wall-E and Dark Knight and frankly its a damn shame that even the old fans don't really give a shit about the x Files anymore.

Whats more sad it that this probably puts the nail in the coffin of us ever seeing a realy barn storming X Files finale to the ever complicated alien/conspiracy mythology.

All the dots could never be connected in the X-Files mythology, the first movie tried and failed. It's clear Chris Carter was just making it up as he went along, there was no overall plan. Brace yourselves Lost fans, your show is traveling down the same path.

I just saw it. I liked it.

For better or for worse I was the only one in the theatre, though.

I was hoping that there'd be more of a monster of the week, or something weirder than just a psychic detective. The Russian experiments with decapitated dogs (true stuff; really happened - some severed heads lived nearly a month!) was getting to the weirdness I was hoping for, but it just seemed tacked on at the end there. And the ending wasn't as X-Filesy as it could have been.

But it was good to see Scully and Mulder out searching for clues again. X-Files is still one of my favorite shows. I need to see about getting the DVDs of the earlier seasons.

Watched it and it sucked hard, wouldn't even make a good tv episode.

No real plot or script

0.1 out of 5

Fry's has all the seasons for $19.99/each. I toyed with buying a couple of more (I already have 1 and 2) just a few minutes ago...

I still need season 4 and 6. Not sure if I want to get season 7 though. Twas the suck.

I want all of it, regardless of suck.

Found out the 'Clyde Bruckman' is season 3...guess I'll be buying that one...

Thanks to a coupon, I bought the box set with all 10, plus the first movie, for $100 at Cost Co not too long ago.

Damn, that's a good deal! I remember the original box sets were damned near $100 EACH.