Review - X-Files: I Want to Believe

After a ten year absence Mulder and Scully are brought back in for duty to solve one more X-Files case. This time, a convicted pedophile priest is claiming to have visions of a missing FBI agent. Mulder is asked to come back in to verify the believability of the psychic visions. Mulder is instantly sucked back into the work, while Scully still struggles with the case and her strained relationship with Mulder.


Director Chris Carter brings back X-Files after a ten year void, and does a good job of jumping right back into the meat of the series. X-Files: I Want to Believe, unlike the first movie, only feels like a longer episode (which isn't a bad thing). This would be a great premiere episode of the season, but unfortunatley it is only a 105 minute film. A good reason the film feels just like a longer episode, is director Chris Carter wrote over two hundred episodes of the X-Files television series and also this film. (Chris Carter also wrote B.R.A.T. Patrol, a televison movie from 1986 with Sean Astin that I loved. I still have that movie on an old VHS tape taped off ABC, when they use to show Disney Movies on weekends) X-Files: I Want to Believe also feels closer to the series because, not every phenomenon or case had to do with aliens (like the 1998 X-Files movie). The film relys heavily on the tagline for X-Files: I Want to Believe and really sums up Scully and Mulder's relationship nicely.

Both David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully feel like they never left the parts made so famous on the television series, and stepped right back into their roles perfectly! Carter does a good job with the script explaining the ten year hiatus for the ex-agents. Both seem perfectly logical to where their characters would have gone outside of the show. (One complaint, that beard on Mulder in the beginning, was so terrible and so fake!) David Duchovny once again, gives perfect deliveries to his long-winded speculations and insight into the case. Duchovny always felt perfect for the part of Fox Mulder and here again, he excels in his role! Anderson does a great job of conveying the emotion and struggle of Scully throughout the film. Scully struggles with her relationship with Mulder and with the fact that she must believe. Scully and Mulder's relationship hinges on the fact that, Mulder believes and Scully struggles with it, and a good portion of the film deals with the subject matter.

The case in X-Files: I Want to Believe, is very good and keeps the viewer enthralled throughout. I had hoped that this film would not be about aliens, and luckily I got what I wanted. (The episodes I enjoyed the most on the show never dealt with aliens, but instead other phenomenon) Billy Connolly who plays the convicted and claiming to be psychic priest, Father Joseph Crissman, is expectionally good and seamlessly makes the viewer question his true intentions. The kidnapping sequences are shot in such a way that keeps the viewer questioning just what is happening, leaving you like the agents, unsure of what is unfolding. I felt the relationship of Scully and Mulder was dealt with very well and brought closure to all the tension that remained between them in the series. Some hardcore X-Files fans may be upset with a few of the plot developments between them, but I enjoyed it all the way through.

Overall X-Files: I Want to Believe was a good movie, and a far better film than its predecessor. X-Files: I Want to Believe feels like an episode, but at the same time has enough closure to feel equally like a feature film. The case itself is very intriguing and holds the viewers attention throughout to the chilling finale! If you were a fan of the show you will definatley like X-Files: I Want to Believe, and even for the general viewing audience, it has enough suspense and strong performances to recieve a decent amount of praise.