I just got home from seeing The X-Files: I Want To Believe. It was somewhat disappointing, which I actually expected. Chris Carter has said all along that this movie would have very little to do with the over-arching storyline of the series, which is a disappointment. Toward the end of the series there was fan outcry that the alien plotlines were too dominant, when the series ended many fans claimed this was why. I was on the opposite side of the fence, I felt that the main plot was so much more interesting than the earlier season’s ‘Freak Of The Week’ episodes. This movie felt largely that way, like an earlier episode of the show, with very few ties to the actual show other than the characters of Mulder and Scully. I feel like they wanted to make it friendly to people who never watched the show, there were very few references to the main story arc. Don’t get me wrong, it was awesome to see Mulder and Scully together again, working on a case. I would have much rather had a lore filled movie than this. I get the feeling that fans are now going to say “this movie didn’t have anything to do with the storyline of the show” and will be disappointed at this fact. The same fans that cried about the plotline when the show was in it’s later years, begging for a return to the freak of the week mentality of the earlier seasons. As I was leaving the theater I heard one guy saying to his friends “I actually thought that was a horrible movie, it didn’t have anything to do with the show.” I think a large part of the failure of this movie will be the fact that it was released only 1 week after The Dark Knight, which was bound to be more popular.
Overall, I would have to give the movie a C rating; it just didn’t feel right. Here’s hoping that if they go ahead with another movie, they will return to the main plot at least a little bit.