X-Files: I want to believe - Review by JB!

The X-Files: I Want to Believe is the latest installment in the Mulder and Scully paranormal adventure. The X-Files began as a television show built around the outcast FBI agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and his skeptical partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) as each week they investigate a new unexplained phenomena. Mulder is a man desperate to prove the possibility of the impossible to satisfy his personal demons, and his near-paranoia is balanced by Scully’s caution as she applies science and faith when attempting to solve each case. The show aired for nine years, and also produced its first full-feature, The X-Files: .

I Want to Believe is more of a self-contained episode that focuses its paranormal struggle of the week on the influence of religion, rather than on the significance of a plethora of unexplained phenomena as a whole. Mulder and Scully are no longer working for the agency, no longer looking in the dark for answers. We find that Scully is focusing her faith and talents as a doctor at a Catholic hospital, and Mulder is in exile leading his own paranormal investigation through newspaper clippings. Because of their past expertise with the unexplained, the Bureau sucks them back into the darkness to help in a new case where a pedophilic Catholic priest is seemingly psychically aiding the FBI on a manhunt for a missing agent. It leads both now ex-agents back to questioning their beliefs, which was always at the core of the series. Mulder, as always, wants to believe that this could be the one true case that validates him and his work, while Scully is still hesitant to take that leap of faith because of her beliefs in God.

While director Chris Carter tips his hat to the hardcore X-Filers several times throughout the movie and retains many of the familiar elements that made The X-Files what it was, I Want to Believe is not so completely out there that it cannot be enjoyed by the casual moviegoer who doesn’t know much of the duo’s history. That is, if the casual moviegoer likes government conspiracies, the idea of psychic connections, questioning the importance of Christianity, and accepting that there some things that just cannot be explained conventionally. It may not be the satisfying thrill-ride most X-Filers have been craving for, but the movie is enjoyable enough to whet their appetite, and even appease the casual fan.

However, if you’re really looking for those engaging conspiracy theories that keep you up at night, you’re better off renting the first few seasons on DVD and watching them while you craft tin-foil hats.

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