The X-Files: I Want To Believe

Tressa arrived at the airport Saturday night, Chris (and Brit and Katie and Brandon) and I met her at the airport, grabbed dinner at Logan's Roadhouse, did a quick bit of stalling-til-the-movie-starts shopping and bought our tickets for:

The X-Files: I Want To Believe

i thought Chris Carter could have come up with a better name, until i watched the final episode of the series earlier on Saturday. while Mulder and Scully are on the run, in a darkened hotel room, Mulder gives us insight into what he wants to believe.

and then, during the movie, the understanding deepened.

on the surface, it was "i want to believe we will find these women alive" "i want to believe in Father Joe" "i want to believe God will save Scully's patient." there have been spiritual and religious themes woven thruout the XF episodes, but i never felt they were this deep. Scully continues to wear her gold cross necklace while struggling with issues of faith. i could feel her heaviness, the weight she was carrying, and it was suffocating. a tribute to Gillian's talent to feel how restricted Scully felt.

Mulder emerges from hiding to assist the FBI in their search and we watch him come alive again. from shaggy to clean-shaven, the facial hair to cover up who he is disappeared once he engaged in life again. as Jimmy Stewart's character described Katharine Hepburn's in "The Philadelphia Story," he was "lit from within." a tribute to David's talent to watch Mulder be reborn and to re-engage with his world.
i wish it had felt more X-File-y. there was a definite creep-factor in the plotline, but it didn't thrill me like the first movie had. was it because there was so much time between the series end? was it because the visuals didn't stun the way the episodes almost always seemed to? it seemed to me it would have had the feeling i was expecting if one of the series directors had been at the helm. Chris Carter, XF creator, was directing, and while he was the guy on a number of episodes, i wish Rob Bowman had directed this installment as well. he did such a great job with the first movie.

one thing: we were kept in the dark as to whether Mitch was in the movie or not. the scene before Skinner is revealed we saw/heard this:

Dana Scully: Listen to me! I need your help!
Agent Mosley Drummy: I'm sorry. I - I can't help you.
Dana Scully: Then let me talk to somebody there with some balls who can.

the next time we saw Scully, she was with Skinner. Tressa and i squealed and Chris laughed. Skinner definitely pulled out the big balls!!

another thing. i hear ALL THE TIME about how David and Gillian hate each other. do these look like two humans who hate each other?