|
Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, William B. Davis, John Neville, Armin
Mueller-Stahl, Blythe Danner. Written by Chris Carter. Directed by Rob Bowman.
Previous to this movie, Mulder (Duchovny) and Scully (Anderson) had come close to nailing down a vast global conspiracy of shadowy men. These men appeared to be using alien D.N.A. they had discovered and hidden from the world for some potentially evil purpose. As a result, these men had the F.B.I. "X-Files" section run by Mulder and Scully shut down. As the movie opens, Mulder and Scully have been reassigned and are working on a bomb threat to a federal building. But they have ignored F.B.I. protocol, and instead check out a building close by. Mulder accidentally discovers the bomb, and while a bomb expert tries to diffuse it, the bomb blows the building to smithereens. But it is not as simple as it seems. There are bodies in the building that weren't supposed to be there, and a friend of Mulder's father (Landau) suggests they may even have been dead before the building blew. Scully and Mulder are internally investigated by an outside government investigator (Danner), who wishes to put the blame for the expensive explosion on them, and split them up. Meanwhile, Cancer Man (Davis) and Well-Manicured Man (Neville) are working on some alien contact in Texas, and may have some connection to the bodies that were found. It is up to Mulder and Scully to put the clues together and discover the conspiracies behind the conspiracies. Do you need to have seen the show to understand the movie? Very much so. There is little explanation of what the X-Files are (investigation of cases with potential paranormal connections) or the history of the many characters we meet. This includes the relationship between Mulder and Scully, where the film continues to tease the viewer about whether they will get it on as fans of the show know they want to. This tease is getting a bit annoying, and those who have not seen the TV show will likely find it silly and unsatisfying (as might those who watch the show). Does it answer all the questions the previews suggested? Some of them. I won't say which ones are answered, but there is at least one major question Mulder wants to know that is totally ignored that advance notice suggested would be answered. But it does nicely set up how the series will begin for its sixth season next year. The first third of the film is briskly paced, including the stunning building explosion, plus solid writing with an especially humourous Mulder getting off several great lines. But the film slows down thereafter, with plot twists and turns that are not always logical, and characters changing motivations without logical explanation, including a major bad guy inexplicably changing sides to move the plot along. The series is consistenly innovative, but much of the movie steals from past sci-fi flicks. It seems everyone steals from Aliens nowadays, and the aliens in their embryos at the end of the film sound like Ripley's aliens, come from pods like her aliens and swish their tails around and bang around their pods like her aliens. We even get a 2001: A Space Odyssey opening where a couple of neanderthal men encounter some creepy alien species, and then we flash to the future by showing the same locale (and the same alien) in modern day Texas. But the movie does have its moments, with plenty of action, some fine special effects and Mulder's dry sense of humour. If you are a fan of the TV show, you will likely enjoy it, and will need to see it to know where the show is going next season. If you are not, it would be best to check out some of the enjoyable flicks out now, such as The Truman Show and 6 Days, 7 Nights.   |