Rama’s SCREEN

As a big fan of the series, let me just start by saying, I love this installment! THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE will satisfy the fans who grew up watching the series, fully aware that it was more than just about aliens and spaceships. It’s also about phenomenon beyond our comprehension and writer/director Chris Carter and his friend Frank Spotnitz remind us of that. This movie… captures the essence of the relationship between Mulder and Scully, what attracts them and the culmination of what they mean to each other after all these years working side by side. It’s riveting, nostalgic, and heartfelt. It’s a great sequel!

“The X-Files: I Want to Believe” is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder’s pursuits.

It’s a bit tough to describe the relationship between Mulder and Scully. It’s not like any other FBI partners shown in other movies.
Scully was hired to sorta keep a tab on Mulder, to be the logic and to make sense of the things that Mulder is assigned to investigate. Whereas Mulder has always been the man who wants to believe in things that are beyond our comprehension.
This movie is not a continuation of the first movie, and that is good! Watching this movie feels like watching a 2 hour episode but with theatrical elements and cinematography style that gives that big screen experience.

Gillian Anderson never ceases to amaze me. As an actress, she is definitely under-appreciated. Some might argue that it wouldn’t be difficult to put on your old suit and reprise your character. But to embody the character Scully, in my opinion, would demand a lot. Her performance hits the right notes.
David Duchovny certainly still has that charm and wit that makes Mulder known for who he is. As an FBI outcast, he’s motivated by the anger and the upset over the failure of finding his sister.
It’d be awful if they had been recast.

The visual was okay, in a sense that it’s old school and it depends solely on make-ups, good camera work and lighting, the snow landscape as the backdrop. Nothing extravagant but that’s how we like our X-Files. We wouldn’t want it drowned in unnecessary CG effects, now would we?!
I like how the script includes references from the past, names and situations that our two heroes encountered in the series. It’s also good that they don’t go deeply into those things. They mention them just for the sake of making the fans happy that they are fans.
The concept of the crim portrayed in this sequel is crazy and relevant at the same time.

Scully is believer of Science, Mulder is a believer of something much greater. That doesn’t make either one of them foolish. They are entitled to their belief and opinions. I think the theme of this movie is clearly not to give up.
If you truly have a strong conviction about something, not acting on that conviction would the foolish thing to do. Where it’d be science or things beyond our control.
At first this movie makes me feel like it has an agenda against God but as it progresses, I can see how it changes into a different perspective.
It seems as though God puts a child on this earth and let him suffer with terminal illness but if you look at it from another side, a choice has been offered in front of us, whether to do everything we can to help the child or let him wither and die.
It seems as though God may or may not be giving visions to people who, in our opinion, don’t deserve them. A choice is offered in front of us, whether we let our judgmental mind get the better of us and we let go… or we keep pursuing every lead because a woman’s life might be saved because of it.
Don’t Give Up!
* Place the cursor on the image below to check my grade for this film