Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The X-Files: I Want To Believe

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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 07-24-2008, 05:30 PM:

Well, sorry to say I cannot review the entire film as I gave up about an hour into it.

What I did get to see though was a suspenseless pile of tripe.

While not an X-Files devotee, I still know a big smelly [bs]

when I see one.

Hey, Scully's a brain surgeon now? Oh, OK. She always was a fast learner. [Roll Eyes]

I want to believe these guys will now just roll over and do other things. The 90's are gone. Get over it.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-24-2008, 05:58 PM:

I can't think of any other of the "big" summer movies this year that has less buzz about it than this one.

The teaser onesheet looks stupid, too. Who ever pioneered the idea of the teaser onesheet with no title (or much else) on it is an idiot.

Plus the title is a complete yawner. I don't know which is worse - this or "Quantum of Solace."

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 07-24-2008, 06:57 PM:

I Want To Believe is such a dumb title. Who on earth actually convinced themselves at Fox that people would say the mouthful "Hey, I'm going to see 'The X-Files: I Want To Believe' tomorrow".

Dumbest title of the year. Even the print ID's themselves don't bother with it and instead go with 'The X-Files 2'. That is what it is, after all.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 07-24-2008, 07:25 PM:

All the boxes of marketing materials from Fox call it "30350" on the label.

--jhawk

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 07-25-2008, 07:56 AM:

quote: John Wilson
Hey, Scully's a brain surgeon now? Oh, OK. She always was a fast learner.

I have not seen the movie yet so I can't comment on how good or bad it is but....

If you watched the show you would know that Scully was a medical doctor before joining the FBI. She used to do autopsies all the time. This was the scientific background that she had to offset Mulder's belief in sci-fi and paranormal stuff during investications. The show ended in 2002. A neurosurgery residency is 6 years if the candidate has already had a "prelim" year of residency. That would make her a neurosurgeon in 2008 which is when the movie is released and takes place.

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 07-25-2008, 12:31 PM:

Do you guys remember Chris Carter's other show, MILLENNIUM? If not, you might want to skip the next paragraph, which has MAJOR SPOILERS!!!

The first season of MILLENNIUM was pretty much a serial killer of the week series. In Season 2, Carter was busy with the first X-FILES movie, and he handed control of the show over to Glen Morgan and James Wong, the team responsible for some of best stuff THE X-FILES has to offer. While Carter wasn't paying attention, they decided to make the show good. A supernatural element was added which gave the show direction, and Season 2 ended with a viral outbreak which essentially was going to wipe out humanity. When the show got picked up for a third season, Carter decided that he wanted to take a more active role in the writing, and wanted to bring the show back to its roots. The big problem of course, was that 90% of the world's population was (presumably) killed in the last episode. Carter's solution: Open Season 3 with a news report of a small viral outbreak which killed 60 people in the Northwestern United States. And that's when MILLENNIUM jumped the shark.

So why should we be surprised that now he's doing the same thing with THE X-FILES? If you're gonna do something big, if you're gonna relaunch your series after six years, you have to make it matter. I WANT TO BELIEVE would have been a perfectly forgettable standalone movie if it had occurred at some point during the series. But by putting it after the show has ended, it doesn't just suck. It makes the overall series structure worse. It erases what has come before. It doesn't add anything new to the characters, it doesn't advance the story at all, and by sucking as much as it does, it pretty much ensures that we will never get another movie, with that iconic image of Mulder and Scully driving down an open road with a flying saucer shooting laser beams at their car in the year 2012. And that makes me sad. It's why I hate this movie when I should be ambivalent.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 07-25-2008, 12:40 PM:

Here is my review summed up in one word........CRAP!

Posted by Robert John Jeromson (Member # 2559) on 07-29-2008, 06:26 PM:

Pretty dull and uninspiring...

SPOILER ALERT!!!
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Billy Connelly as a convicted peadofile makes about as much sense as having Howdy Doody play a fucking bank robber!!!
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END SPOILER!!!

P.S You leave 'Quantum of Solace' alone [Smile]

[ 07-29-2008, 11:19 PM: Message edited by: Robert John Jeromson ]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-29-2008, 10:59 PM:

Hey, I'm looking forward to Quantum of Solace as much as the next guy but that doesn't mean I have to like the title. It's the worst James Bond title since "Octopussy."

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 07-30-2008, 02:44 PM:

they should have just titled this 'The Zzzz-Files: I Want to Sleep' - the first forty minutes were so mind numbingly dull. What a major disappointment, this the is the final nail to the movie franchise - what a terrible way to end the whole X-Files mythos.

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 07-31-2008, 08:42 PM:

After seeing this finally I have to say I was VERY disappointed. I was hoping that Chris Carter had come up with a great story to resurrect the franchise and then be able to end it properly with another movie or two. I don't think that's going to happen.

If this movie was a 2 part episode of the show it would have been a mediocre episode. As a movie it doesn't work at all. Chris Carter doesn't seem to know what he is doing as a film director. The pacing was horrible, there was no tension built up. There were characters like Xzibit that just didn't have any purpose. Aside from that the story was predictable and dull.

The only thing remotely entertaining was getting to see Mulder and Scully interact again and a few references back to the series.

Unfortunately they killed the series when Duchovney didn't want to do the show anymore and Mulder disappeared for a few seasons. They should have just ended the show at that point and then they would have been able to do a few movie follow ups.

[bs]

1.5 out of 5 stars

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-02-2008, 04:54 PM:

I guess I didn't miss much with this picture, not that I was gonna see it anyway. This show has never appealed to me. The guy strikes me as a dork, and the girl seems very dull and uninteresting. [dlp]

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-06-2008, 11:25 AM:

quote: Tim Reed
The guy strikes me as a dork, and the girl seems very dull and uninteresting.

Tim smacks it outta the ball park in one sentence! [thumbsup]

I could never see what all the fuss was about when this thing was on the air. This rehash so long after the show's demise is destined for the DVD bins faster than you can say the title. And no doubt the DVD will have lots of "extras not seen in the theatres" -- you know, the stuff they pick up off the editing room floor, or in the case of video editing, out of the Recycle Bin.

[ 08-06-2008, 03:29 PM: Message edited by: Frank Angel ]

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 08-06-2008, 12:49 PM:

With so many dull movies being made, and the universal panning by audiences and people in our business, what do producers see in these lackluster ideas that they wish to invesy huge money into making them?

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 08-06-2008, 12:53 PM:

Frank,

Judging from the box office take, they could probably suggest that the entire movie wasn't seen in theaters. [Big Grin]

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 08-06-2008, 06:35 PM:

quote: Tim Reed
The guy strikes me as a dork, and the girl seems very dull and uninteresting.

You say "dork" like it's a bad thing. Mulder most certainly is a dork. That's how everyone else in the show sees him too. He's the crazy guy who believes in UFO's. That's essential to his character, and it's one of the things which makes his character so charming.

And I find Scully to be a very interesting character. As a skeptic, she shares the audience's point of view. But there's this other element to her character which is really fascinating. That's her struggle with faith. As a woman of science, she is constantly questioning Mulder's beliefs in the paranormal. If he's gonna tell her that this dude is a psychic, he's gonna have to prove it scientifically. But at the same time, she's a devout Catholic. And that faith is what keeps her going. The most interesting aspect of the character is her struggle to reconcile those two conflicting ideologies. How can she demand absolute scientific proof from Mulder when she has absolutely no proof of her beliefs?

That's one of the reasons why the series works so well, and it's the one thing the movie promised to deliver. And it failed miserably.

quote: Frank Angel
And no doubt the DVD will have lots of "extras not seen in the theatres"

Ding! Chris Carter's already said that there will be an extended cut on home video.

Posted by Carey Barber (Member # 1586) on 08-07-2008, 12:17 AM:

This was thoroughly disappointing.

I remember really liking the TV series and I recently bought some of the seasons on DVD.

I was reminded that this show was really well done and had a lot to offer the viewer.

This movie, on the other hand, was boring and poorly paced. The conflicts and mysteries were very unspectacular. You would think that a movie installment would have a big, exciting, and important storyline but it is completly dismissable.

With the exception of the last couple seasons, every episode of the show was better than this film.

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 08-07-2008, 07:47 AM:

quote: Gary Crawford
With so many dull movies being made, and the universal panning by audiences and people in our business, what do producers see in these lackluster ideas that they wish to invesy huge money into making them?

They didn't take that big of a risk. The production budget was only $30 million. They were smart. Even a $100 million budget couldn't have fixed the writing and directing of this movie.