Review: The X Files - I Want To Believe (Cert15)

Reviewed by Grant Lauchlan

IF you want to believe, then believe this - they say you get what you pay for. And nothing could be closer to the truth in this big screen sequel to the ground-breaking TV series.

Take a look at the film's budget, reported to be about $30million (convert that into pounds, it is roughly £15million), barely enough to hire Will Smith to star in a movie these days.

So in the big Hollywood scheme of things, it's a tiny budget and a clear indicator as to what we should expect. Forget special effects, alien spaceships, and monsters, stuff like that are all far too costly.

Instead, this second X Files movie is a talky affair full of exposition rather than explosions.

But that's no bad thing if there's a script with a gripping story line. The truth is out there.

Six years since the end of the series, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are together (romantically) but don't work for the FBI (officially).

Scully is a doctor in a Catholic owned hospital and Mulder is a bearded recluse hiding from the authorities at his/her home.

Though why with all their expertise the FBI can't locate him is a mystery to me that this film never solves.

But they are called back into action by the FBI after an agent goes missing. Throw in a psychic paedophile priest (Billy Connolly), a bunch of severed body parts, and general weirdness and you've got what amounts to nothing more than an average episode of the TV show but made for the cinema.

It's not awful by any means, just an awfully big disappointment. IWant To Believe is an introspective look at faith and reason.

To the film's detriment, its makers have ignored the alien threat and government conspiracies which made the television series the must-see (and ground-breaking) show of its day.

The beauty of The X Files that I love and remember was it's sharp writing and complex story arcs matched with spooky goings-on in the world of UFOs and the supernatural. Here, we are presented with nothing particularly new, thrilling or chilling and as for the movie's climax, it's a finale to nothing.

I've seen more gripping episodes from the original series. Newcomers to the franchise may end up lost or bored, as they'll just not care or know enough about these two characters.

But I suspect fans (like me) will still appreciate seeingMulder and Scully reunited. Duchovny and Anderson reprise their roles easily and enjoy plenty of screen time together, and they've barely aged.

And he may be our greatest living comic, but sadly Billy Connolly is wrong for the part.

He doesn't quite convince as the troubled Catholic priest and lacks the depth of emotion needed for the part.

Perhaps the fault is mine and I'mtoo familiar with his stand-up work because I was just waiting for him to crack a joke or two and, boy, the film needs it.

There's a line where a weary Scully says to Mulder: "I've gone through this with you for too many years." How ironic, because the movie feels tired, too, and cheap.

Maybe backers Twentieth Century Fox saw the truth was indeed out there, and perhaps the franchise had seen better days, and would not commit to a bigger budget.

But conspiracy theories aside, I suspect there is a much better X Files movie still out there. You know what? I want to believe that.