The Second Time Around was Better.
After discussing X-Files with a few "experts" in the field, I decided to take a another look at X-Files: I Want to Believe. Initially, my expectations may have been set too high (I was a little excited) for a standard "X-Files" type plot. This time my attention was more focused on the Mulder/Scully relationship and what Chris Carter was trying to convey in this movie. Having done this, I found it a much more enjoyable flick.
I still struggled with seeing snow on the silver screen in the dead of summer.
I continue to stand behind my previous post that stated the top ten things that are wrong with the flick. However, today, I viewed the movie through a wider lens that covered religion, life choices, the growth of our beloved ex-FBI agents as both individuals and as a couple as the underpinning to the entire movie that C Carter wanted the true believer to walk away with.
I think, in retrospect, that if the audience throws out the actual "X-File" story and just looks at the case as a prime opportunity for Mulder to come out of hiding and the "B" story of Scully's young patient dying as a reason to pull her away from Mulder and reflect on her own life, then the picture has much more meaning and offers a little more than an extended TV episode. This movie was definitely intended for the "shippers" and now that the X-Philes fans have a real, passionate kiss to play over and over again on YouTube, it is at least one of many loose strings that has been tied.
BTW: This promotional shot was never in the movie. Never did Mulder and Scully look at a computer together. Only Scully used it for research and not in that shirt. She either wore a lab coat and/or scrubs while at the hospital.
I also plan to purchase the DVD. There were frames that I wanted to freeze to look at the background detail - like Mulder's home office. I also need to check on something that I think I saw. I believe that one of little girls who played Mulder's sister (the one with no language who as an eight year-old clone on a plantation with a massive indoor beehive) is all grown-up and walking past him at the FBI office as he was waiting, with Scully, to be invited in. I definitely did see Chris Carter in the hallway of the hospital holding a white urn as Scully walked to the door of her office to unlock it.
Sidebar: At the theater this afternoon, only one other family was there. At the end, when the credits began, I heard the father say, "You've got to be kidding me?!"
I almost replied that he needs to see it again with more of an open mind, but I did not think he or his family would have taken that advice from the only other person in a dark theater. Too bad they left before the Easter Egg :)
The end of the movie/thriller/X-File is a bit of a let down when you first see it - and the Russian bad guy was going to put his "husband's" head on a woman's body because, as Mulder pointed out later, the injured Russian was dying of lung cancer. But why would a gay man put his partner's head on a woman's body?
Anyway...
A second look for all you X-Philes fans who may have been disappointed the first go around that the end of the world as we know it (2012 has been the set date according to the now deceased Smoking Man) was not saved by Mulder and Scully or what is going on with William (and we may never know) or his half-brother the burnt agent Jeffery Spender can take comfort the Mulder/Scully relationship six years later. It was actually refreshing to see that Scully is not the same but Mulder is - that she finally said 'No' to "chasing the darkness" and stayed in the hospital to do her 'real' job. She is much stronger and Mulder is still strong-headed.
Hopefully XF3 will give the long-time fans the answers to the ultimate series questions. We want Mulder and Scully to save the world from evil!
I would also be good with a film that really focuses in on how and why and by whom Samantha died - dig deep into Mulder's fragile psyche and cause a real meltdown between the two quasi lovers. Either plot/adventure would be good and it would NOT alienate non-fans. Movie-goers can get both without knowing the series but it is the long-time fans that will pull in the bucks for the movie - they will see it ten or more times in the theaters.
Mr. Carter, don't turn your back on the loyal fans. Not all of us X-Phileses fold aluminum hats in our spare time, but we would like some closure please.
At least one excellent song BROKEN by U.N.K.L.E. was performed at the end. If you waited through the credits for the Easter Egg, you also got to listen to this song.
U.N.K.L.E - Broken lyrics
Gavin Clark :
Dead state I can feel the weight
Light streaming in through an open grate
Two thread score tearing up the floor
Out in the alley with the trigger draw
Numb hands I can see the strand
Hold it together with a severed ban
Three lost years I've been crying here
I'm over, I'm over, I'm over, I'm broken
Strung out with wings of the dawn
Hole in the black soul in the storm
Torn down through the cracks in the dark
We're miles adrift we're inches apart
I'm hit I can feel the grit
Sat in the asher on the beaten brick
Two thread main running through the vein
Out in the centre with a mirrored cane
Numb feet I can hear you speak
Hold it together with a severed streak
Three lost years I've been crying here
I'm over, I'm over, I'm over, I'm broken
Strung out with wings of the dawn
Hole in the black soul in the storm
Torn down through the cracks in the dark
We're miles adrift we're inches apart
Stood up on the side og the earth
Thrown back to the track to the dirt
Two thread lose an hour a day
We're miles adrift, we're inches away...
Hold it together with a severed bank
Can't feel the blood
Song lyrics | Broken lyrics
Other Movies
I recommend Wall*E and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Both are good popcorn flicks.
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