STUDIO: Fox
RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2008
STARRING: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connelly, Amanda Peet, Xzibit, and Callum Keith Rennie
WRITTEN BY: Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter
DIRECTED BY: Chris Carter
GENRE: Action
RATING: PG-13

After all these years without a sequel to The X Files, the anticipation for a follow-up to 1998's Fight the Future had dissipated. Gillian Anderson had moved on to great roles in The House of Mirth and Tristram Shandy and David Duchovny proved TV lightning could strike twice, earning raves and award nominations for his work in Californication. Loyal fans of The X Files (and there were very few more loyal than myself, who saw every episode until Duchovny left...and a few too many after) moved on and put aside the notion of ever seeing more adventures of Scully and Mulder. Then the impossible happened. Chris Carter actually got a script for a theatrical sequel of Fight the Future off the ground and, lo and behold, Duchovny and Anderson signed on. This had to be something special, right? The public wasn't exactly clamoring for another X Files film, so it didn't reek of a cash grab, which left only one alternative - a story that Chris Carter simply HAD to tell. When Chris named his follow-up I Want To Believe, it almost felt as if he was doing it as a nod to his fans, who were a little wary of a return to their favorite franchise, but hoped that whatever he did next would live up to what he used to do best. We wanted to believe. Little did we know just how much we'd be let down.

The X Files: I Want To Believe is not just an underwhelming follow-up to Fight the Future. It's not just a pale shadow of what this show was in its prime. It's a complete failure on every single level that's much more of a head-scratcher than a nail-biter. THIS is the story that had to be told? A script that the Carter of the '90s who was one of the best writers on television would have realized simply wouldn't work? A movie with dialogue so laughably bad that it derails any potential for suspense or drama? Video stores are going to struggle to pick a category for I Want To Believe, a film without any real action, no suspense, and, believe it or not, no real science fiction. Many fans of the show complained about the final few seasons of The X Files and argued that it damaged the legacy of the show. I always said that the series was too strong for that and plenty of brilliant shows faded away without damaging how great they were in their prime. I Want To Believe damages the legacy of The X Files, one of the most influential shows of the last two decades.

The melodramatic plot of I Want To Believe centers on a classic theme of the show - faith. In the opening scenes, an FBI agent is kidnapped and a convicted pedophilic priest named Father Joe (Billy Connelly) claims to have visions of the missing woman. Is he for real or is he just looking for forgiveness for his own sins by using available knowledge from reports about the crime? If you have a man who appears to be having unexplainable visions, there's only one dynamic duo to call - Mulder and Scully. In the years since the show, Scully has been working with dying children at Our Lady of Sorrows Hospital and Mulder, well, apparently he's been growing a beard and obsessing over newspaper clippings. Scully convinces Mulder to help out the FBI who once wanted him in jail - apparently, all is forgiven when an agent goes missing - and the two are off to meet with a pair of FBI agents played, in the most bizarre casting in years, rapper Xzibit and Amanda Peet. In this case, he's the skeptic and she's the believer. A subplot features a controversial treatment being employed by Scully on a dying child. It's some of the most manipulative material of the year and offensive in its blatant heartstring pulling.

What's most shocking about I Want To Believe, besides some of the worst dialogue of the year, is that there's SO little to this story. I kept waiting for a twist or a turn and all I got was another melodramatic speech about faith and believing in something else. Edited in a way that would deflate any sort of building suspense, I Want To Believe simply never works. Duchovny makes it out the best, slipping easily back into this role, but even he seems to have one foot out the door, ready to go back to Californication much more than fully coming back to the franchise. The most deflating thing about I Want To Believe is that no one remembered the strengths of the show that made this movie a possibility. Change the character's names and this could have been any Sci-Fi Channel movie of the week. I wanted to believe, but I was given less than I possibly imagined I ever would in a movie with The X Files brand name.