I Want to Believe

So I saw the X-Files movie today, the first time it showed in Saskatoon! Here are my thoughts:

Okay, I'm just writing this all now because it's in my head, but there are some spoilers, so don't read until you watch the movie.

I liked all the little Easter eggs they put in for X-Files fans. For example, the part with Mulder throwing pencils at the ceiling at the beginning (Chinga, season 5) and the fact that someone named "Gilligan" is in his phone (Vince Gilligan, longtime writer for the X-Files), and the inclusion of Alex Diakun, who had bit parts in three episodes of the X-Files written by Darin Morgan (as the curator in Humbug, Dr. Fingers in Jose Chung's From Outer Space, and the tarot reader in Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose). Also I just remembered that one of the FBI agents mentions other psychics Mulder has dealt with, like Luther Boggs (Beyond the Sea, season 1) and Clyde Bruckman (Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, season 3)

The little kid at the beginning looked strangely like Rumer Willis. Perhaps Demi Moore and Bruce Willis had a child they are keeping secret because he has a speech impediment?

I hated the fact that Amanda Peet was in the movie. I really don't like her. I also spent the whole movie trying to figure out which rapper played the other FBI agent, but I never figured it out. (Just found out it was Xzibit. I was thinking The Game, but I guess I was wrong.)

Anyway, the plot was less convoluted and complicated than the first movie (which I've seen twice but have NO CLUE what is going on), but still I thought they didn't develop the villains or the whole Frankenstein plotline at all, instead focusing on the dynamic between Mulder and Scully. Actually, there wasn't much character development at all, other than Mulder and Scully. Amanda Peet dies and no one seems to care, and the agent played by Xzibit is never mentioned after her death. Also, I guess the Rumer Willis kid was supposed to be a metaphor or something, but I thought they could have done without that whole plotline.

Loved Mitch Pileggi's cameo, but there should have been more of him AND HE COULD HAVE TAKEN OFF HIS SHIRT. He has a hot body for an old dude, as evidenced by that season 4 episode where he is being blackmailed by CSM and he has to take off his shirt because it has blood on it after he hides a body. There was no CSM or Lone Gunmen, and Skinner could have compensated for some of that. I missed Krycek, and I'm pretty sure Nicholas Lea could have used the work. The last thing I saw him in was a sci fi original movie about giant bugs. They could have had a plotline where he turns his prosthesis into an AK-47, a la whatsherface in Planet Terror. That would have been AWESOME.

I liked that they brought the franchise up to date with the gay couple and the cool cell phones and the use of Google. Also, although I kind of missed Scully's bob (for old time's sake) I liked her new hair. I HATED Mulder's facial hair but he shaved it off, thank goodness. Also, when Mulder and Scully are in bed together, I loved that there was a book on the nightstand and the only visible word was "sex."

Scully cried three times. I keep a cry count on my computer from the TV series, and Mulder cries way more than she does. I miss the Mulder tears. WHY COULDN'T THEY HAVE GIVEN ME THE MULDER TEARS?

I was reading about the movie, and Gillian Anderson said she was out of shape and it was hard for her to do the stunts, but David Duchovny was ready for the stunts because of his work on Californication. Doesn't he just have sex on that show? I'm sure it's a workout, but does it really prepare you to climb buildings?

That said, it got 28% on rottentomatoes.com, but I think Roger Ebert gave it a good review, so that's something. It's good because it's the X-Files, but if I hadn't already been a fan, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have liked it. The only reason I count the first X-Files movie as one of my favourites is because it's the X-Files, much like I only liked the new Indiana Jones movies BECAUSE IT'S INDIANA JONES.

And this movie could have been way funnier. There was a great Mulder moment where he's like, "I would have crawled into bed with him and kissed his ass!" (to find out what he knows) and Amanda Peet's like, "he's a convicted pedophile." There's a long pause and Mulder's like, "well...maybe I wouldn't have crawled into bed with him." And another part where they're going to a dorm where sex offenders live and Mulder's like, "stay away from the activities room!" I miss the patented deadpan Mulder humour, and it was only there twice. Btw, do those dorms actually exist? I THINK PEOPLE SHOULD BE WORRIED. They could be trading tips and plotting and stuff.

However, they had a lot of other patented X-Files stuff, including Scully's weirdly plucked eyebrow, her trademark eyebrow cock, Mulder's long, muttered rants about supernatural stuff, the "Mulder it's me" and "Scully it's me" and the crazy Mulder antics (RUNNING INTO A HOUSE FULL OF CRAZY DOCTORS DOING EXPERIMENTS ON HUMANS WITH ONLY A MONKEY WRENCH?) and the Skinnerisms ("He wouldn't do anything crazy! Well, not overly crazy.") and the random guest stars that I randomly know (TED FROM REAPER! THE RUSSIAN GUY APPARENTLY FROM SUPERNATURAL AND SMALLVILE WHO I CAN'T REMEMBER. AFOREMENTIONED ALEX DIAKUN). The only thing not there that I kind of missed was the trademark X-Files philosophical voice over.

They could have brought the Lone Gunmen back. Maybe the virus didn't kill them, it just gave them superpowers. Chris Carter can do it. He can do anything.

Something I just found out was that Scully's dad was played by Don S. Davis, who plays Hammond on SG-1. I don't remember this at all. I have to find episodes with Scully's dad so I can see this for myself.

At the beginning of the movie, as soon as we found out the guy was stealing organs, I was hoping against hope that it would be a continuation of the Eugene Victor Toomes mytharc from season 1 who maybe didn't die under the escalator, but was coming back for more livers! Sadly, this was not to be.