The X-Files Sequel

I actually believe.

Boo to the critics who complain that the movie is only an “extended television episode,” or to the ones who complain that it lacks action that was typical of the series. Boo to the naysayers who say its been too long since the series ended for them to resurrect a franchise out of it. This movie does not contend with the alien mythology, nor does it answer any of the questions left open by the series. It succeeds admirably as a reintroduction to the show, establishing the characters after the years since the last episodes.

Dana Scully is a doctor at a Catholic hospital, practicing cutting edge medicine in an environment that is intentionally characterized as old and dilapidated. Her life after the FBI has been spent productively, helping those in need as best she can. Mulder, on the other hand, has turned into an obsessive recluse. He collects newspaper clippings of unsolved cases and broods on a picture of his sister, Samantha.

When the FBI looses an agent to mysterious circumstances in rural West Virginia, Mulder and Scully are called into to aid the FBI in what looks to be an X-File. A Catholic priest (a convicted pedophile living in a self-policed community of post-incarceration sex offenders) has psychic visions of the missing FBI agent and is convincing enough that one Special Agent in Charge (played by Amanda Peet) uses Mulder as a consultant to verify or debunk the psychic potential of their would-be informant. 

What follows is typical X-Files–creepy twists and turns, an interesting statement on humanity, and the brilliant interplay of Scully and Mulder, writ large across the silver screen. Scully is still the doubter, after everything she’s seen and observed. It is her own struggles with faith that keeps her from believing that a sinner, no matter how vile, could find forgiveness and even atonement by helping them catch a monster. 

The only qualm that I have with the movie is that Callum Keith Rennie (who played Leoben on Battlestar Galactica) is terribly under-utilized as one of the primary villains. His intensity and focus are palpable, but he is given few lines and ever fewer chances to show his acting chops. His part in the big reveal near the end of the movie is fairly disturbing in a horror-movie archetype sort of way, but I was left slightly unsatisfied by it.

Gillian Anderson is still beautiful. She definitely shows her age a little bit, but the calm certainty with which she plays her role has improved with her time away from the show. David Duchovny looks a little wild (even sporting a beard in the opening minutes of the movie), but this is likely a greater metaphor for the state of his character, mirroring his own confusion and frustration with his life post FBI. Mitch Peleggi even makes a surprise appearance as Direct Skinner later in the show, which pleased me and will likely please other long-time fans of the show.

If you’re not a series fan, I think the movie still provides enough of a mystery plot that you’ll be entertained, even if you miss all the references to the show or to the character’s pasts. There are a couple of genuine scares in there, and they are handled with the low key style and direction of a modern-day Hitchcock. My appetite has been whetted; now I’m ready to see Scully and Mulder tackle some of the remaining questions in the show’s mythology.