Jason KingX Files: I Want to Believe ($11-)
July 23rd 2008 11:25
X Files: I Want to Believe ($11-)
THE X-FILES(TM): I WANT TO BELIEVE is a new motion picture based on the phenomenally popular, award-winning series The X-Files. Long-anticipated, the film reunites series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson under the direction of series creator Chris Carter, who co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Spotnitz. In grand The X-Files tradition, the film's storyline is being kept under wraps, known only to top studio brass and the project's principal actors and filmmakers. This much can be revealed: The supernatural thriller is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show's most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the always-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder's pursuits. Months after shooting had wrapped, Carter remained as circumspect about the story as he was during its development and production. "Mulder and Scully are drawn back into the world of the X-Files by a case," is all he'll add about the plot. Perhaps more clues...to something....can be found in the film's title. "I Want to Believe" is a familiar phrase for fans of the series; it was the slogan on a poster that Mulder had hanging in his office at the FBI. "It's a natural title," says Chris Carter. "It's a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith." Carter is much more revealing about his goals for the film. "Simply put, we want to scare the pants off of everyone in the audience," he says. While the scale and scope inherent in the medium of film allowed the filmmakers to take the story and characters where the show couldn't go, Carter says THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE also marks a return to the series' roots, when it was the lone beacon on television for fans of thrillers, supernatural tales, and of horror stories. "The film encompasses all the best things people loved about the show. It's scary, creepy, and has a good mystery. With The X-Files, we often scared people by what they didn't show, and we use that device for the movie." Adds writer-producer Frank Spotnitz: "I think the best part of The X-Files was that it could make you afraid of anything. They didn't tell typical horror stories or adhere to popular genre conventions. And this movie is in that tradition of showing things that you would not see in most scary movies." Unlike the first The X-Files motion picture, released in 1998, Carter and Spotnitz's story for THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE does not require audiences to understand the series' complex mythology that stretched across its nine seasons on the air. "The first movie was kind of an epic episode of the show, but THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a real, stand-alone movie," explains Carter. "If the show hadn't existed, this is a story that still would have found its way to the big screen." --© 20th Century Fox
I faced a massive dillemna with this film, how do you judge something you worshiped for close to ever. (I have started watching the entire show again on dvd in order.) On one hand this film has been too long in the coming, is it too long? As a fan I want to see something that brings the characters back into my life with a bang and then they are doing a "stand alone" film similar to their horror fest stand alone episodes. What can I say......WHY????? The show was massively popular and has a mega following of now older people, these people want PURE X FILES, that would be something that reunites the characters and does it in the strongest XFILES style ever, which in my opinion, would be going back to it's bread and butter, ALIEN CONSPIRACY. Instead we get a decent story much more suited to a double episode they should have made for the small screen. Someone please tell Chris Carter to get off the crack, his thoughts that if this film does well he will make a third XFILES movie and return to its strength, ALIEN CONSPIRACY. Why he did not make that film first to reintroduce people to Skully and Mulder with an alien conspiracy. I could pitch it myself: A UFO crash lands in a popular area, witnessed by hundreds of people, the old Alien Conspiracy Government Agents are no longer around and the FBI calls Skully and Mulder back to help them with handling it. Half an hour in Mulder is introduced to the spaceship and one dead alien but one of them is out there. OMG I am good!! Mulder is placated, there is an alien on the loose and he has finally been justified in his beliefs and the FBI has welcomed him and Dana back with open arms. The chase is on and Mulder and Skully must decide if the world is ready for THE TRUTH. But are those Alien Conspiracy Government Agents really all gone???????
I would be in, I would buy a ticket and I would be ready to watch anything that Chris Carter throws at us with the XFILES after that with them reinstated BUT we get something completely different.
I feel that fans will be excited, like I was, just to see Duchovny and Anderson back together, but they will be disappointed in this mediocre return to the screen. OK, our leads are great, but this time Dana's doppelganger of abundant negativity was kind of annoying, seriously, why does her character even want to live? She is miserable through the whole thing. Mulder is Mulder however his Mulderisms are much declined in this one. I caught three of his smart ass comments through the whole thing. BUT, one of the things I most wanted to see, and what made the show so successful was the chemistry between the two of them. It is still there!!! Yay That!!
I am worried that people who are not fans won't get into it. It is a great "stand alone" film but it's too hard to watch it as that when you know what the X Files can be. Some things I did love were the return to Canada for filming and the fact there was snow everywhere, I love snow, it's so pure. I also liked the cinematography and feel of the movie, it has a small feel of old X Files and it is a dark dark topic and this adds a depression to all the characters and scenery. Skully and Mulder together again is heartwarming but are they too together this time? There is a couple of scenes fans will gasp at. They have both aged a fair bit, and have done so quite well. Gillian Anderson has never looked so good and I finally realised how frumpy they made her look in the older episodes. She is so slim and beautiful, something I had never realised before and I had the privilege of meeting her once and being photographed holding the door of her limo open (one claim to fame, lol).
Some Trivia:
1) Gillian Anderson told The New York Times that it was harder than she expected for her to get back into character as Scully to make this movie after five years had passed since the end of the television show. The Times quoted her as saying, "I walked in thinking, it's going to be like riding a bicycle. It wasn't. It was like riding a [fucking] unicycle. I'd been trying so hard to stretch myself in other roles, and to catch myself when I did anything that remotely resembles Scully, that when I was put back in the ring with her, my brain started misfiring."
2) The television show ("The X Files" (1993)) upon which this movie is based was filmed for its first five seasons in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The show's production moved to Los Angeles for seasons 6-9, but this movie was once again filmed in and around Vancouver. While the show was made in Vancouver, the show often used local Canadian actors in guest and secondary roles, often reusing the same actors in different parts in multiple episodes. With the franchise's return to Vancouver, the producers were able to continue the tradition by recasting many of the same actors they had used so often on the show. For example, Alex Diakun (Gaunt Man) appeared as different characters in three episodes; Lorena Gale (On Screen Doctor) appeared as different characters in three episodes; Stephen E. Miller (Feed Store Proprietor) appeared as different characters in three episodes including the pilot; Sarah-Jane Redmond (Special Agent In Charge) appeared as different characters in two episodes; Stacee Copeland (Doctor) appeared as different characters in two episodes. Callum Keith Rennie (2nd Abductor--Janke Dacyshyn) appeared as different characters in two episodes and was the original choice to play the long-running character Alex Krycek. Several other secondary and tertiary members of the movie cast had also appeared on the show as other characters.
I really wanted more, and hope this does good enough for them to make the film they always should have. Worth $11-
THE X-FILES(TM): I WANT TO BELIEVE is a new motion picture based on the phenomenally popular, award-winning series The X-Files. Long-anticipated, the film reunites series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson under the direction of series creator Chris Carter, who co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Spotnitz. In grand The X-Files tradition, the film's storyline is being kept under wraps, known only to top studio brass and the project's principal actors and filmmakers. This much can be revealed: The supernatural thriller is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show's most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the always-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder's pursuits. Months after shooting had wrapped, Carter remained as circumspect about the story as he was during its development and production. "Mulder and Scully are drawn back into the world of the X-Files by a case," is all he'll add about the plot. Perhaps more clues...to something....can be found in the film's title. "I Want to Believe" is a familiar phrase for fans of the series; it was the slogan on a poster that Mulder had hanging in his office at the FBI. "It's a natural title," says Chris Carter. "It's a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith." Carter is much more revealing about his goals for the film. "Simply put, we want to scare the pants off of everyone in the audience," he says. While the scale and scope inherent in the medium of film allowed the filmmakers to take the story and characters where the show couldn't go, Carter says THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE also marks a return to the series' roots, when it was the lone beacon on television for fans of thrillers, supernatural tales, and of horror stories. "The film encompasses all the best things people loved about the show. It's scary, creepy, and has a good mystery. With The X-Files, we often scared people by what they didn't show, and we use that device for the movie." Adds writer-producer Frank Spotnitz: "I think the best part of The X-Files was that it could make you afraid of anything. They didn't tell typical horror stories or adhere to popular genre conventions. And this movie is in that tradition of showing things that you would not see in most scary movies." Unlike the first The X-Files motion picture, released in 1998, Carter and Spotnitz's story for THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE does not require audiences to understand the series' complex mythology that stretched across its nine seasons on the air. "The first movie was kind of an epic episode of the show, but THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a real, stand-alone movie," explains Carter. "If the show hadn't existed, this is a story that still would have found its way to the big screen." --© 20th Century Fox
I faced a massive dillemna with this film, how do you judge something you worshiped for close to ever. (I have started watching the entire show again on dvd in order.) On one hand this film has been too long in the coming, is it too long? As a fan I want to see something that brings the characters back into my life with a bang and then they are doing a "stand alone" film similar to their horror fest stand alone episodes. What can I say......WHY????? The show was massively popular and has a mega following of now older people, these people want PURE X FILES, that would be something that reunites the characters and does it in the strongest XFILES style ever, which in my opinion, would be going back to it's bread and butter, ALIEN CONSPIRACY. Instead we get a decent story much more suited to a double episode they should have made for the small screen. Someone please tell Chris Carter to get off the crack, his thoughts that if this film does well he will make a third XFILES movie and return to its strength, ALIEN CONSPIRACY. Why he did not make that film first to reintroduce people to Skully and Mulder with an alien conspiracy. I could pitch it myself: A UFO crash lands in a popular area, witnessed by hundreds of people, the old Alien Conspiracy Government Agents are no longer around and the FBI calls Skully and Mulder back to help them with handling it. Half an hour in Mulder is introduced to the spaceship and one dead alien but one of them is out there. OMG I am good!! Mulder is placated, there is an alien on the loose and he has finally been justified in his beliefs and the FBI has welcomed him and Dana back with open arms. The chase is on and Mulder and Skully must decide if the world is ready for THE TRUTH. But are those Alien Conspiracy Government Agents really all gone???????
I would be in, I would buy a ticket and I would be ready to watch anything that Chris Carter throws at us with the XFILES after that with them reinstated BUT we get something completely different.
I feel that fans will be excited, like I was, just to see Duchovny and Anderson back together, but they will be disappointed in this mediocre return to the screen. OK, our leads are great, but this time Dana's doppelganger of abundant negativity was kind of annoying, seriously, why does her character even want to live? She is miserable through the whole thing. Mulder is Mulder however his Mulderisms are much declined in this one. I caught three of his smart ass comments through the whole thing. BUT, one of the things I most wanted to see, and what made the show so successful was the chemistry between the two of them. It is still there!!! Yay That!!
I am worried that people who are not fans won't get into it. It is a great "stand alone" film but it's too hard to watch it as that when you know what the X Files can be. Some things I did love were the return to Canada for filming and the fact there was snow everywhere, I love snow, it's so pure. I also liked the cinematography and feel of the movie, it has a small feel of old X Files and it is a dark dark topic and this adds a depression to all the characters and scenery. Skully and Mulder together again is heartwarming but are they too together this time? There is a couple of scenes fans will gasp at. They have both aged a fair bit, and have done so quite well. Gillian Anderson has never looked so good and I finally realised how frumpy they made her look in the older episodes. She is so slim and beautiful, something I had never realised before and I had the privilege of meeting her once and being photographed holding the door of her limo open (one claim to fame, lol).
Some Trivia:
1) Gillian Anderson told The New York Times that it was harder than she expected for her to get back into character as Scully to make this movie after five years had passed since the end of the television show. The Times quoted her as saying, "I walked in thinking, it's going to be like riding a bicycle. It wasn't. It was like riding a [fucking] unicycle. I'd been trying so hard to stretch myself in other roles, and to catch myself when I did anything that remotely resembles Scully, that when I was put back in the ring with her, my brain started misfiring."
2) The television show ("The X Files" (1993)) upon which this movie is based was filmed for its first five seasons in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The show's production moved to Los Angeles for seasons 6-9, but this movie was once again filmed in and around Vancouver. While the show was made in Vancouver, the show often used local Canadian actors in guest and secondary roles, often reusing the same actors in different parts in multiple episodes. With the franchise's return to Vancouver, the producers were able to continue the tradition by recasting many of the same actors they had used so often on the show. For example, Alex Diakun (Gaunt Man) appeared as different characters in three episodes; Lorena Gale (On Screen Doctor) appeared as different characters in three episodes; Stephen E. Miller (Feed Store Proprietor) appeared as different characters in three episodes including the pilot; Sarah-Jane Redmond (Special Agent In Charge) appeared as different characters in two episodes; Stacee Copeland (Doctor) appeared as different characters in two episodes. Callum Keith Rennie (2nd Abductor--Janke Dacyshyn) appeared as different characters in two episodes and was the original choice to play the long-running character Alex Krycek. Several other secondary and tertiary members of the movie cast had also appeared on the show as other characters.
I really wanted more, and hope this does good enough for them to make the film they always should have. Worth $11-
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Comment by TimmyH
Can you HACK it?
Genyration
Comment by Jason King
Salty Popcorn