Let's be clear. I've loved the XFiles series since 1993. I've seen the new movie and five days later I'm still pissed. After looking at some of the verbiage on the net I gather that those fans who are unhappy are thought to be 'blockbuster mesmerized’ blockheads who just don't understand the subtlety of the writing.
I'm sure. The episode "Badlaa" from season eight also known as the 'butt genie' was another brilliant piece of stealth writing too.
Was I expecting super heroes, explosions, aliens? Nope. I'd heard it was to be a stand-alone MOTW. Perhaps someone should have said 'Frankenstein-serial killer lite' set in a kennel with Russian language thrown in for...what? No discernible reason. I understand some Russian so I had something to occupy my time.
As for the characters, well...all of the original actors look great. The two new FBI agents were just fodder and should have been wearing signs saying 'expendable-pay no attention'. Hmmm was Amanda Peet wearing red like the fall guys in the original Star Trek series? Or was she there to collate the anger of the 'shippers' for her interest in Mulder? Oh my goodness like Diana Fowley...Peet’s character had to die!
The reason I'm not a 'shipper' is probably the reason I stopped watching soaps. I disliked the emotional manipulation by a group of people deciding what women wanted to see. The Xfiles attracted me in the beginning. At first there was something novel about two good looking people working together, who were not fawning over each other. Who actually had separate lives beyond chasing paranormal cases. Then there was also the Sherlock Holmes/Dr Watson pairing without the buffoonery. In this case Dr. Watson was a young intelligent professional woman. Well, all that changed. Sigh. Towards the end Scully went chasing around the country after her 'baby's daddy' (how mortifying was that?) and ends by giving her long prayed for child up for adoption. And this child's adoption is alluded to in the movie. Cry me an ocean.
And let us not forget Scully's crises of faith as a doctor. Well that was a leap from pathology to pediatric brain surgery. No wonder she was looking for signs and wonders ( season 7).
I love actors like Sigourney Weaver in 'Aliens' (1-4) and Diana Rigg or some of the much older favorites like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Norma Shearer etc. Women who could carry a movie alone. Anderson doesn't measure up, and CC cannot force that.
And what the heck happened to my beloved favorite Mulder? He's been tamed, declawed, defanged and castrated. His best line was something like 'I'm ignoring you." ? Is he living with his girlfriend and driving around in her car? Does he not have a job or is his job clipping magazine articles at home?
So I'm sitting in the theater trying to see my watch face and saying it's got to end soon. The saving grace, if there was one, was Mitch Pileggi and the seemingly tacked on contrived rescue. Maybe that was too subtle for me. But I stayed to the very end...to see the rowboat. Geez Louise. More subtlety....
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3 comments:
Well I hope you don't JUST post about XF how utterly boring ;)
Well B, you know I've never found the XFiles boring, until this film. But then ...well then.
July 25th, 2008
Rating:
I Don't Want to Believe
Spectacularly unimpressive, frankly there was more of a plot in some of the Monster of the Week shows from the series. I could have cared less about the ‘Mulder/Scully’ dynamic except to say that between the two of them she apparently has the balls. If this was supposed to be a Tracy/Hepburn match…it missed the mark. I did not watch the XFiles to see romance. I watched to see an interesting story, witty, sarcastic dialogue and action. It would have been nice to see some hint of the old show in this movie. Duchovny looked good and it was great to see Pileggi in the last minutes of the film.
- sphereseeker
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