Ten years after the
first "X-Files" movie -- and six since the conclusion of the
iconic TV series -- FBI agents Mulder and Scully return to
theaters on Friday with "The X-Files: I Want to Believe."
Unlike 1998's "The X-Files: Fight the Future," the new
movie skirts the series' notably paranoid mythology to focus on
a relatively standard criminal inquiry, albeit one informed by
supernatural incidents. In both scope and execution though, "I
Want to Believe" has more in common with its television origins
than its motion picture predecessor.
20th Century Fox kept the film's plot under tight wraps and
held down the production budget, hedging against the potential
downside of reintroducing a lukewarm though popular franchise.
Initial box office should be fairly responsive as loyal fans
fill theaters, but with little originality to offer the
uninitiated, returns will likely taper off quickly because the
film hardly warrants repeat viewings.
"I Want to Believe" reintroduces agents Fox Mulder (David
Duchovny) -- a vociferous adherent of alien abduction,
government conspiracy and other fringe theories -- and Dana
Scully (Gillian Anderson), a sober-minded physician
specializing in forensics, who together pursued a series of
mysterious X-Files cases for the FBI.
Six years have passed since Mulder and Scully left the
agency. The pair now reside in an unanticipated state of
domesticity, with Scully practicing pediatrics at a Catholic
hospital while the discredited and reclusive Mulder pursues his
obsession with paranormal media accounts.
The mystifying disappearance of an FBI agent in wintry West
Virginia convinces Special Agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet)
to bring Mulder in from the cold to help evaluate claims made
by Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly). An avowed psychic
and defrocked pedophile priest, Father Joe is having visions of
the missing agent that led the FBI team to a man's severed arm
buried under the snow that's somehow connected to the case.
After another local woman vanishes and more dismembered
body parts surface, Whitney increasingly relies on Mulder to
coax leads from Father Joe. Ever rational, Scully and Whitney's
colleague, Agent Mosley Drummy (rapper Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner),
scoff at the priest's alleged supernatural ability as the
principal characters progressively battle individual crises of
faith.
Rather than a creepy supernatural thriller, "X-Files"
creator Chris Carter, who directed "I Want to Believe" from a
script co-written with producer Frank Spotnitz, spins a
second-rate "Silence of the Lambs"-type serial killer mystery.
Despite a few evocative early scenes, adequate atmospherics are
noticeably lacking until the final reels, when the plot already
has descended into implausibility. Overall, the film plays like
an improbably skewed but comparatively routine criminal
procedural that would have served the original show well as an
extended season opener or sweep-week contender.
Although Duchovny and Anderson display some muted
chemistry, it isn't enough to fully ignite the narrative.
Connolly cleverly capitalizes on his role as the erratic
priest, though the other performances are almost consistently
dour. Carter's unimaginative visual style, mired in literalism,
can't much buoy the movie either. The other technical
contributions are workmanlike, with only Mark Snow's score
evoking an appropriately eerie mood.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
In Theaters 
