Having never been more than a casual viewer of the X-Files the news of a new movie didn't blow me away. But when I learned that the plot was to be entirely stand alone, inviting fans and non-fans a like to a paranormal thriller I found myself getting genuinely excited.
My knowledge of the X-Files TV series pretty much starts and stops within the first three or four seasons and I didn't find myself confused or lost at any point. We catch up with Dana Scully in current day, roughly six years since the show ended. She's no longer with the FBI and now working as a surgeon at a Christian hospital, that is until a young agent goes missing and Scully is dispatched to find Mulder in an effort to prove or disprove the pedophile psychic priest who claims he can help find the missing woman. Mulder's been in hiding for six years now ever since the FBI decided to shut down the X-Files and discredit him. Reunited, the two of them accompany the FBI team to Virginia in search of the woman and while there, uncover the dastardly twisted plot behind her and several others disappearances.
Unfortunately said dastardly plot isn't quite heavy enough to sustain the entire 105 minutes. Entertaining though that part is the rest of the time is filled out with Scully's preoccupation over saving a sick boy with an experimental procedure despite the wishes of the hospital's head priest as well as her torn feelings over Mulder, she loves him, but doesn't want to be dragged back through the X-Files mud. All this is good stuff in its own right but tends to slow things down. A thriller with two protagonists who've already been established over nine years of TV should allow us to jump right into the action but instead we're periodically bombarded with character development scenes that might have been welcome in a separate and differently paced movie, here it just got on my nerves as things seemingly start to heat up and then grind to a halt a little too frequently. Scully's hospital dilemma could have been equally as thrilling as the missing women of Virginia if it hadn't focused so much on her dreary and depressed fear over it. It's this kinda stuff that makes me consider the promise of a stand alone plot only half true, sure non-fans aren't lost, but these character moments I suspect are gonna only really appeal to those who have been dying to know what they've been up to in the passed six years. The rest of us just don't know enough to care.
I've sounded pretty negative so far so I'll close by saying that this is not actually a bad movie at all, maybe it just wasn't what I was expecting. I went in looking for an edge of your seat paranormal thriller, likened to the early monster of the week episodes of the series. Instead I got a movie that's interested in moral issues as much as thrills. I did however find myself genuinely interested in what was gonna happen next. I wanted to know why these women were abducted and I wanted to see if Scully saved the day at the hospital...I just thought my heart would race a little faster during it. Fans will surely love it and non-fans will surely enjoy it enough, but I don't think it necessarily lived up to its potential.
My knowledge of the X-Files TV series pretty much starts and stops within the first three or four seasons and I didn't find myself confused or lost at any point. We catch up with Dana Scully in current day, roughly six years since the show ended. She's no longer with the FBI and now working as a surgeon at a Christian hospital, that is until a young agent goes missing and Scully is dispatched to find Mulder in an effort to prove or disprove the pedophile psychic priest who claims he can help find the missing woman. Mulder's been in hiding for six years now ever since the FBI decided to shut down the X-Files and discredit him. Reunited, the two of them accompany the FBI team to Virginia in search of the woman and while there, uncover the dastardly twisted plot behind her and several others disappearances.
Unfortunately said dastardly plot isn't quite heavy enough to sustain the entire 105 minutes. Entertaining though that part is the rest of the time is filled out with Scully's preoccupation over saving a sick boy with an experimental procedure despite the wishes of the hospital's head priest as well as her torn feelings over Mulder, she loves him, but doesn't want to be dragged back through the X-Files mud. All this is good stuff in its own right but tends to slow things down. A thriller with two protagonists who've already been established over nine years of TV should allow us to jump right into the action but instead we're periodically bombarded with character development scenes that might have been welcome in a separate and differently paced movie, here it just got on my nerves as things seemingly start to heat up and then grind to a halt a little too frequently. Scully's hospital dilemma could have been equally as thrilling as the missing women of Virginia if it hadn't focused so much on her dreary and depressed fear over it. It's this kinda stuff that makes me consider the promise of a stand alone plot only half true, sure non-fans aren't lost, but these character moments I suspect are gonna only really appeal to those who have been dying to know what they've been up to in the passed six years. The rest of us just don't know enough to care.
I've sounded pretty negative so far so I'll close by saying that this is not actually a bad movie at all, maybe it just wasn't what I was expecting. I went in looking for an edge of your seat paranormal thriller, likened to the early monster of the week episodes of the series. Instead I got a movie that's interested in moral issues as much as thrills. I did however find myself genuinely interested in what was gonna happen next. I wanted to know why these women were abducted and I wanted to see if Scully saved the day at the hospital...I just thought my heart would race a little faster during it. Fans will surely love it and non-fans will surely enjoy it enough, but I don't think it necessarily lived up to its potential.