Film review by Kevin Patterson
THE X-FILES Rating: ***1/2 (out of four) PG-13, 1998 Director: Rob Bowman Screenplay: Chris Carter Story: Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz Producers: Chris Carter & Daniel Sackheim Starring Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, William B. Davis, John Neville.
Having been an avowed X-Phile for several years, I wasn't sure how best to approach the task of reviewing this X-FILES feature film. I had thought that I should try to write the review as objectively as possible and distance myself from my fandom, but I realized that this would probably be a dubious endeavor on my part, to say the least. And since most of the other reviews I've read have been written by those who do not watch the show, I've decided to throw objectivity to the wind and offer the perspective of an admitted die-hard fan.
Whether you watch the show or not, you probably know that it involves the efforts of FBI Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) to investigate paranormal phenomena. Over the show's five seasons, this assignment has led them into the increasingly dangerous depths of an international government conspiracy to conceal the truth about the existence of alien life. As the film begins, the X-Files have been closed and Mulder and Scully have been given a routine assignment investigating a bomb threat. Unfortunately, the assignment doesn't turn out to be quite so routine: the agents barely escape with their lives as the bomb levels a building in what appears to be a cover-up of several bizarre deaths in Northern Texas. Before long, the eccentric Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil (Martin Landau) contacts Mulder, claiming to have inside information which indicates that the bomb may have been the doing of the sinister conspirators that have frustrated Mulder and Scully for so long.
THE X-FILES has been promoted as an action movie, but it's really more of a hi-tech political thriller with a science fiction backdrop. There are several big action set pieces, particularly a riveting sequence towards the end in Antarctica, but like the TV series, this movie is more about intrigue, paranoia, and searching for the truth than chases and explosions. It sets up the mystery effectively in the first half hour or so, alternating back and forth between the two agents' situation and the efforts of a shady government organization to conceal the existence of a seemingly alien-originated virus. While Mulder and Scully try to gather evidence of the mysterious circumstances surrounding the initial bombing, the conspirators, among them the Cigarette-Smoking Man (William B. Davis), the Well-Manicured Man (John Neville), and a German named Strughold (Armin Mueller-Stahl), scramble to protect their long-held plans for the future of the planet.
Since part of the fun of political thrillers in general and of the ongoing storyline of the "X-Files" TV series is following the plot developments, I won't give away any more actual story elements. I can say, however, that the move to the big screen does seem worthwhile: the two agents' investigations have a much larger scope than they previously have, and the movie also injects a new dose of horror into the alien conspiracy thread. The ending, as one might expect, is somewhat open-ended: series creator Chris Carter, who wrote the screenplay, provides an effective temporary resolution while leaving the door open for further mysteries in coming TV episodes. And yes, fellow X-Philes, we do in fact get some of the long-awaited answers about the elusive conspiracy.
As is the case in the show, the story is given an extra little spark by the Mulder and Scully characters, who have an interesting believer/skeptic dynamic (though Scully's skepticism is understandably waning at this point in the story) and who must have one of the most enigmatic relationships in Hollywood history. They clearly care for each other very deeply and depend on one another for support, yet they are almost obsessively dedicated to their work (particularly Mulder, who believes his sister was abducted by aliens) and are careful to avoid any overtly romantic gestures. This film finds them addressing what their quest for the truth means to them and what they mean to each other more openly than they ever have on the TV show, while managing to preserve some of the enigma and ultimately revitalizing the two characters. I especially liked the scenes in which each of them worries that he or she is somehow weighing down the other, that the quest has become too personal and their work too marginal to be worthwhile. It's interesting to see that they're thoughtful enough to consider this, even though Carter's screenplay rightly posits that their worries are unfounded: whether they realize it or not, Mulder and Scully are true crusaders for justice.
The missteps in THE X-FILES are for the most part minor and scattered. The screenplay gets a little overdramatic at times, such as when a government agent worries that the "impossible scenario we never had a plan for" is now developing, or when the two agents shout "Mulder!" and "Scully!" almost a dozen times during a chase scene. Director Rob Bowman executes most of the action sequences perfectly, but he cuts from scene to scene extremely quickly in a few places; in one scene, for example, Mulder thinks he is being followed and ducks around a corner, and in the very next shot he's walking in his apartment door. There are also a few plot holes, most notably the fact that the conspirators don't seem to guard their secrets too carefully (though the TV series has gotten away with this conceit for a long time as well).
The screenplay does manage to bring new viewers up to speed pretty quickly without indulging in overly awkward exposition: it should work as an entertaining, intelligent thriller even for those who haven't followed the show. The main disadvantage for non-X-Philes, I think, is that they might not have quite the same sense of the extent of the conspiracy and the ordeal that Mulder and Scully have endured in trying to expose it; for these viewers, a *** rating might be more appropriate. If you really want an objective analysis, however, I'd have to advise you to go read some other review. From my own hopelessly biased perspective, I'd say that it's about as good as I had hoped: it's essential to the "X-Files" storyline, it's worth seeing on the big screen, the characters make some important decisions, and yet enough of the mystery is preserved. The truth is still out there, and it's just as intriguing as ever.
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