B.W. At The Movies: X-Files — I Want To Believe

I remain convinced to this day that one of the reasons Star Trek: The Motion Picture didn't work is that they waited until about 90 minutes into the thing before the soundtrack finally gave us a taste of the familiar Trek fanfare. (They fixed this flaw years later by using the ST:TMP theme as the Star Trek: The Next Generation theme — now the film feels very Trekky from the opening frames.)

The reason I mention this is Chris Carter did the right thing with his new flick The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Just about the first thing you hear after the 20th Century Fox fanfare is the seven-note theme of the TV series. You may as well be back home on the couch ready for another cool adventure with Fox Mulder and Dana Scully — and I have a strong feeling that's the approach they took to the entire enterprise.

I've seen more than a few reviews of this flick along the lines of "They waited six years to do another X-Files story and all they came up with was this?" I have to admit I had that thought a time or two watching this story about two old friends, colleagues and lovers. But you know what? In the end I was OK with that. It's a good, solid X-Files story, and you know how long it's been since we had one of those? When all was said and done, a good solid X-Files story has always been satisfying.

Whether this will do enough at the box office to justify any further sojourns is up in the air. I got the feeling the gang in charge tried hard to keep our expectations down, in hopes we'd sit through it, take it for what it's worth, and go home thinking, "You know, I liked that a whole lot more than I thought I would," and that's what we'd tell our friends, and they'd go and have a similar experience, and maybe we'd go back a time or two and buy the DVD when it comes out, and before you know it there's enough spare cash lying around to do another movie. I sure hope it turns out that way, because you know, I liked this movie a whole lot more than I thought I would.

And hang around through the closing credits. You may have the same reaction I had: "Why are they showing all these ocean scenes? There was no ocean in the story." The answer is cute and sweet (of all things) and you won't mind waiting for it.

They're going out there again

Well, now, this is news.

Twentieth Century Fox has at long last unveiled a release date for its forever-in-the-works X-Files sequel, announcing that Mulder and Scully will be reuniting on the big screen June 25, 2008.

I have to admit, this film has not been anywhere near my radar screen for many a year, but it's kind of cool, I guess. Dana Scully and Fox Mulder and company were one of the great TV teams of all time, and anything that raises skepticism about the benevolence of our rulers is a good thing.

Sounds like they're out to make a horror thriller rather than extend the "mythology" of The X-Files, which is too bad. But it'll be nice to see the old gang back together, as much of them as they manage to gather. I wouldn't mind seeing Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish as agents Doggett and Reyes again, but that might put me in the minority.

The list of 2008 movies already includes Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Star Trek, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Incredible Hulk, the 22nd James Bond film and a remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. Now this. Could be an interesting year.