Whether you've been watching X-Files since the first ep or have never even heard of it, it's an AMAZING film. I think returning to Vancouver was the key to returning X-Files to its core roots.
First off: it was DARK. I don't mean mentally dark I mean literally. Shooting X-Files in LA was so many levels of wrong. That bright sunny LA feel never worked for the show. It was always those dark Vancouver days for seasons 1-5 that made X-Files just LOOK right. "I Want to Believe" just LOOKED RIGHT.
This was the finale that the series never was. It was a tribute back to the early day of the series where it was about a weekly creature or spooky phenomenon, where the event was about the reaction from Mulder and Scully.
This isn't to say I didn't love the mythology of the series I, in fact, thought it was one of the best part in the series, but as it got more and more and more complicated to the point where it just didn't even make any sense, added with the move to LA, the loss of Mulder and the downplaying of Scully by season nine, and it just wasn't that show I started watching in 1993.
"I Want to Believe" is like watching the Mulder and Scully relationship from season nine if you put them back into a season one type of situation. It's a 'phenomenon of the week', which "X-Files" always succeeded at. Some of the most meaningful and powerful episodes of "X-Files" were the ones that stood alone because they explored the human condition rather than the conspiracy.
"I Want to Believe" questions most strongly faith, love, hope and commitment. It deals in human monsters, real monsters, while the phenomenon element is not part of the evil human deeds. It hearkens back to episodes like "Lazarus", "Young at Heart" , "Unruthe" "Revelations", and one of my all time favourites, "Irresistible".
The movie works for someone who has never even heard of "The X-Files", but for fans there's nods and winks scattered through the film. As soon as I saw the pencils stuck in the ceiling, I knew all the real fans in the audience by who was laughing. And I also knew the movie was going to be a full of nods like this.
All in all, this is what I wanted from the series finale. The finale was a huge let down after 9 years of dedicated viewing. It was too 'technical', never resolved the mythology in a way that satisfied, and, even worse, it offered no closure with these characters who had been a part of my life for all this time. "I Want to Believe", in the end, was a final good-bye to the fans right down to the hidden scene in the middle of the end credits (which was more the actors than their characters).
First off: it was DARK. I don't mean mentally dark I mean literally. Shooting X-Files in LA was so many levels of wrong. That bright sunny LA feel never worked for the show. It was always those dark Vancouver days for seasons 1-5 that made X-Files just LOOK right. "I Want to Believe" just LOOKED RIGHT.
This was the finale that the series never was. It was a tribute back to the early day of the series where it was about a weekly creature or spooky phenomenon, where the event was about the reaction from Mulder and Scully.
This isn't to say I didn't love the mythology of the series I, in fact, thought it was one of the best part in the series, but as it got more and more and more complicated to the point where it just didn't even make any sense, added with the move to LA, the loss of Mulder and the downplaying of Scully by season nine, and it just wasn't that show I started watching in 1993.
"I Want to Believe" is like watching the Mulder and Scully relationship from season nine if you put them back into a season one type of situation. It's a 'phenomenon of the week', which "X-Files" always succeeded at. Some of the most meaningful and powerful episodes of "X-Files" were the ones that stood alone because they explored the human condition rather than the conspiracy.
"I Want to Believe" questions most strongly faith, love, hope and commitment. It deals in human monsters, real monsters, while the phenomenon element is not part of the evil human deeds. It hearkens back to episodes like "Lazarus", "Young at Heart" , "Unruthe" "Revelations", and one of my all time favourites, "Irresistible".
The movie works for someone who has never even heard of "The X-Files", but for fans there's nods and winks scattered through the film. As soon as I saw the pencils stuck in the ceiling, I knew all the real fans in the audience by who was laughing. And I also knew the movie was going to be a full of nods like this.
All in all, this is what I wanted from the series finale. The finale was a huge let down after 9 years of dedicated viewing. It was too 'technical', never resolved the mythology in a way that satisfied, and, even worse, it offered no closure with these characters who had been a part of my life for all this time. "I Want to Believe", in the end, was a final good-bye to the fans right down to the hidden scene in the middle of the end credits (which was more the actors than their characters).