Comic Related - To See, Or Not To See

X-Files: I Want to Believe

by Russell Burlingame, ComicRelated.com

After a lackluster opening weekend, it seems entirely possible that The X-Files: I Want to Believe may be the final chapter of the once-popular television show’s cinematic life (the previous outing, Fight the Future, did substantially better in its opening weekend but was still widely considered to be underwhelming both cinematically and at the box office). Interestingly, while it’s doubtful that anyone expected the movie not to succeed, it appears to have been written with the idea in mind that this might, in fact, be the last go-‘round for director Chris Carter and his best-known creations, Dr. Dana Scully and Fox Mulder.

A popular culture phenomenon when it debuted in the early ‘90s, The X-Files television show became a hit, spawning all matter of licensed merchandise, including comics from Topps, back in the ‘90s when everyone was in the market. When the popularity of the show waned, Fox tried to keep it—at the time one of the network’s only success stories—in the public eye and ultimately it fell with a very loud “thud.” The show became the pre-eminent example of a TV series that fell from grace, and many hardcore fans stopped watching before the series finale—a rarity for a show so entrenched in continuity and so loaded with dangling plot threads.

After seeing I Want to Believe, though, one has to wonder where Vertigo’s upcoming X-Files ongoing series will fit into the timeline of the series. Announced at the New York Comic-Con’s X-Files panel, the Vertigo series will debut in October and cater to mature audiences, allowing it to tackle many themes that the show (and its two cinematic outings) may have touched upon, but that the Topps Comics series was certainly not going to touch.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe deals with the characters who have obviously been put through the wringer in the years since the series ended. Mulder has gone underground to hide from the FBI, his name disgraced and charges levied against him for crimes never fully explained in the film. Scully, too, has left the Bureau—but she has gone back to practicing medicine. It’s worth nothing that many of the X-Files die-hards always wondered aloud why Scully was given so few opportunities in the show, to actually shine as a doctor. It was simply part of her background, and rarely something treated as important except in that it usually made her the de facto smartest person in the room. Here, that all changes as she deals with conflicts both ethical and practical with respect to one of the patients in her care, and that aspect of her life takes center stage for a good portion of the movie.

The central plot of I Want to Believe, though, revolves around an aging priest, who is a convicted sex offender but who also claims to have been given visions from God which are supposed to help the FBI find a missing agent. Mulder, considered the closest thing they know to an expert on the paranormal, is called in by a scrappy young Agent-In-Charge played by Amanda Peet, in a turn that’s very reminiscent of her role on Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as the network president with a heart of gold. They offer him immunity from his past crimes and a guarantee that he won’t be dragged through the mud anymore in exchange for coming, and giving them his honest opinion on whether or not the priest is faking his “visions.”

In the vein of many of the X-Files’ best episodes, the veracity of the visions is never entirely clear. There are, necessarily, strong indications that Father Joe may in fact be a messenger of God, but very little, if anything, that couldn’t be explained away by the possibility—raised throughout the picture—that he’s actually one of the bad guys and that his “visions” are really just inside knowledge in disguise.

As the film progresses, it becomes clear that the missing agent is only the tip of the iceberg, and that many more lives are in danger than just hers if the villains aren’t stopped. There’s not the scope and grandeur of Fight The Future, which literally saw the whole world endangered in dramatic fashion, but in I Want To Believe, we see Mulder and Scully distilled down to their essence, and we see them humanized substantially more than they were in the first film, where they were essentially investigative superheroes.

Also missing from the film are (almost) any members of the TV show’s supporting cast. It’s surprising not to see the Cancer Man, even in flashback…but the one cameo from a former X-Files regular in the film is satisfying. The role the character plays at a pivotal moment, lends a nice sense of closure to one of the most conflicted personalities in the series.
The film is very much a stand-alone story, told from the perspective of “one last time, because only we can do it,” and Scully coming to Mulder’s little hidey-hole to bait the bearded hero out of retirement feels not unlike the first chapter of Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come. That’s an aspect they would have been wise to play up in advance of the theatrical opening, given that there was a huge look-in audience on the first film who said, “I’ve heard so much about this show! What a great jumping-on point,” and then was left disappointed and confused by the product they found onscreen. Those people probably didn’t come back for I Want to Believe, which is a shame because it seems like exactly what they were looking for when they turned out to theaters all those years ago.

And yes, for the record, this film does in fact clear up every question you have about the turbulent relationship between Mulder and Scully. Without giving anything much away, a ten-second clip of dialogue that contained the phrases, “That’s why I fell in love with you,” and “That’s why we can’t be together,” spoken between the characters, captures so much of the frustration fans have felt over the years with the “Will they, won’t they?” romantic and sexual tension between Scully and Mulder. The ultimate resolution is less formulaic than expected, and leaves the viewer more satisfied than if they’d tried to drag the question on for another decade and another sequel.

Ultimately, it’s Scully’s battle we’re watching here. The film is called I Want to Believe, Mulder’s famous catch-phrase, and he gets to deliver on a couple of occasions. But ultimately it’s about Scully, and the decision she has to make about whether or not she wants to believe—not just in Mulder, and not just in Father Joe, but in anything at all, or maybe all of the above.


		www.comicrelated.com
	X-Files: I Want to Believe by Russell Burlingame, ComicRelated.com After a lackluster opening weekend, it seems entirely possible that The X-Files: I Want to Believe may be the final chapter of the once-popular television show’s cinematic life (the previous outing, Fight the Future, did substantially better in its opening weekend but was still widely considered to be underwhelming both cinematically and at the box office). Interestingly, while it’s doubtful that anyone expected the movie not to succeed, it appears to have been written with the idea in mind that this might, in fact, be the last go-‘round for director Chris Carter and his best-known creations, Dr. Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. A popular culture phenomenon when it debuted in the early ‘90s, The X-Files television show became a hit, spawning all matter of licensed merchandise, including comics from Topps, back in the ‘90s when everyone was in the market. When the popularity of the show waned, Fox tried to keep it—at the time one of the network’s only success stories—in the public eye and ultimately it fell with a very loud “thud.” The show became the pre-eminent example of a TV series that fell from grace, and many hardcore fans stopped watching before the series finale—a rarity for a show so entrenched in continuity and so loaded with dangling plot threads. After seeing I Want to Believe, though, one has to wonder where Vertigo’s upcoming X-Files ongoing series will fit into the timeline of the series. Announced at the New York Comic-Con’s X-Files panel, the Vertigo series will debut in October and cater to mature audiences, allowing it to tackle many themes that the show (and its two cinematic outings) may have touched upon, but that the Topps Comics series was certainly not going to touch. The X-Files: I Want to Believe deals with the characters who have obviously been put through the wringer in the years since the series ended. Mulder has gone underground to hide from the FBI, his name disgraced and charges levied against him for crimes never fully explained in the film. Scully, too, has left the Bureau—but she has gone back to practicing medicine. It’s worth nothing that many of the X-Files die-hards always wondered aloud why Scully was given so few opportunities in the show, to actually shine as a doctor. It was simply part of her background, and rarely something treated as important except in that it usually made her the de facto smartest person in the room. Here, that all changes as she deals with conflicts both ethical and practical with respect to one of the patients in her care, and that aspect of her life takes center stage for a good portion of the movie. The central plot of I Want to Believe, though, revolves around an aging priest, who is a convicted sex offender but who also claims to have been given visions from God which are supposed to help the FBI find a missing agent. Mulder, considered the closest thing they know to an expert on the paranormal, is called in by a scrappy young Agent-In-Charge played by Amanda Peet, in a turn that’s very reminiscent of her role on Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as the network president with a heart of gold. They offer him immunity from his past crimes and a guarantee that he won’t be dragged through the mud anymore in exchange for coming, and giving them his honest opinion on whether or not the priest is faking his “visions.” In the vein of many of the X-Files’ best episodes, the veracity of the visions is never entirely clear. There are, necessarily, strong indications that Father Joe may in fact be a messenger of God, but very little, if anything, that couldn’t be explained away by the possibility—raised throughout the picture—that he’s actually one of the bad guys and that his “visions” are really just inside knowledge in disguise. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that the missing agent is only the tip of the iceberg, and that many more lives are in danger than just hers if the villains aren’t stopped. There’s not the scope and grandeur of Fight The Future, which literally saw the whole world endangered in dramatic fashion, but in I Want To Believe, we see Mulder and Scully distilled down to their essence, and we see them humanized substantially more than they were in the first film, where they were essentially investigative superheroes. Also missing from the film are (almost) any members of the TV show’s supporting cast. It’s surprising not to see the Cancer Man, even in flashback…but the one cameo from a former X-Files regular in the film is satisfying. The role the character plays at a pivotal moment, lends a nice sense of closure to one of the most conflicted personalities in the series. The film is very much a stand-alone story, told from the perspective of “one last time, because only we can do it,” and Scully coming to Mulder’s little hidey-hole to bait the bearded hero out of retirement feels not unlike the first chapter of Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come. That’s an aspect they would have been wise to play up in advance of the theatrical opening, given that there was a huge look-in audience on the first film who said, “I’ve heard so much about this show! What a great jumping-on point,” and then was left disappointed and confused by the product they found onscreen. Those people probably didn’t come back for I Want to Believe, which is a shame because it seems like exactly what they were looking for when they turned out to theaters all those years ago. And yes, for the record, this film does in fact clear up every question you have about the turbulent relationship between Mulder and Scully. Without giving anything much away, a ten-second clip of dialogue that contained the phrases, “That’s why I fell in love with you,” and “That’s why we can’t be together,” spoken between the characters, captures so much of the frustration fans have felt over the years with the “Will they, won’t they?” romantic and sexual tension between Scully and Mulder. The ultimate resolution is less formulaic than expected, and leaves the viewer more satisfied than if they’d tried to drag the question on for another decade and another sequel. Ultimately, it’s Scully’s battle we’re watching here. The film is called I Want to Believe, Mulder’s famous catch-phrase, and he gets to deliver on a couple of occasions. But ultimately it’s about Scully, and the decision she has to make about whether or not she wants to believe—not just in Mulder, and not just in Father Joe, but in anything at all, or maybe all of the above.
	Page last updated on August 1, 2008 About Us \| Contact Russell Burlingame \| Contact Comic Related All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2008 Russell Burlingame