The X Files (1998)

This should fill out my x letter quota just fine.  That’s right, just like the letter q I hadn’t talked about a movie that begins with an x.  But of course I fixed q with a very enjoyable viewing of The Queen.  X is a little trickier because I didn’t want to go into any of the X-Men pictures and that doesn’t leave much else.  Both xXx films were in strong contention.  I hadn’t seen the first one since it came out and never checked out the sequel so they would’ve worked wonderfully.  But ultimately I went with The X Files feature.  I can’t really tell you why.  I guess the truth is out there or some shit.

In preparation for this movie I saw about the first half of the first season.  A little boning up on the series seemed warranted and I’m glad I did that.  The goal was to make a film for both newcomers and fans but this definitely feels like it’s more for the latter.  There’re a couple of lines thrown in here and there to get beginners up to speed like that the X files division has been dissolved and that Mulder’s sister got abducted by aliens when he was a boy.  It comes off as the forced unnecessary dialogue that it is though.  The rest of the time the filmmakers are moving forward with the characters and ongoing story.

Speaking of story, it’s really confusing.  I got that there are these aliens that use humans to gestate inside of like in Alien but there’s a bunch more going on.  Who the fuck are the good humans and the bad humans?  Are Mulder and Scully the only good ones and is everyone else bad?  Does the ending mean that nothing’s changed?  Who was driving the flying saucer at the end?  Are the aliens dead or did they just leave earth?  Why are there some humans that want to keep the aliens alive?  Since they’re a threat to the entire world wouldn’t all humans want to wipe out these sonsabitches?  I don’t fucking understand any of this shit.  The show stuck with simple narratives that were really easy to follow.  Sure, for a feature film there’s the desire to make it bigger in just about every way but I think the gestating alien plot with one government agency trying to cover it up would’ve been enough.  I guess that’s what happens when you have 90 to 120 minutes to fill as opposed to 45. 

Honestly, aside from shit being unclear I’m kinda struggling to find stuff to say about this one.  It’s not like Mulder and Scully are very interesting characters (one’s a wise crackin’ alien believer and the other’s a solemn skeptic, that’s about it). 

Let’s see what else there is…the aliens have a cool look to them and it’s nasty when they tear a couple of people apart.  But because this is rated PG-13 they’re barely in the movie.  The camerawork and editing was ahead of its time whenever they attack with close-ups and quick cuts.  It’s unfortunate they had to do this to keep the rating down.

Everything moves along fine for the first hour or so but then it all becomes too convoluted and falls apart.  In order to keep the script a secret they didn’t have an ending until right before they shot it and it sure feels that way.  In fact most of the picture feels like that.  They knew they had to hit certain beats (the FBI tries to split up Mulder and Scully, both of them get closer to death presumably than they ever have, they care for each other more than ever before and even almost kiss, the X files department gets reopened, etc.) and they had a good starting point with the initial plot.  The problem is the filmmakers threw in too many twists which made it difficult for them to fit everything together. 

There were just too many things to juggle with the production.  The movie had to satisfy both fans and non-fans, the script had to be kept on the hush-hush as long as possible (meaning parts were left unwritten until the last minute), they had to craft a story that hadn’t already been covered in the five seasons of the show and things had to be left open-ended enough for future seasons.  Plus on top of all that there’s the usual politics, compromise and bullshit that goes with making a major picture (especially one that’s going for a PG-13 rating).  AND this all goes double for this particular film because it already has a huge established following built in.  The X Files is a proven formula so naturally a lot of folks want a piece of the pie.

In the end this isn’t very good.  It doesn’t have enough good stuff in it to make it worth checking out (at least for novices to the series) and it’s not interestingly bad either.  Dammit, I’m gonna have to watch the xXx’s now.