Ouch, that was bad. I didn't have high expectations for this movie but I didn't expect for it to be as lame and tiresome as it was. Badly scripted, badly, badly directed and badly acted the new X-Files movie is still a massive disappointment even to someone with lowered expectations.
Things seemed okay for the first twenty minutes or so whilst the mystery was being established, kind of seeming like a middling episode of the TV series but it went downhill fast. The story might have done for an episode of the series but really does not do to fill out the length of the movie, providing some rather uninteresting foes for Mulder and Scully to face and the answers when they are provided are rather anticlimactic and pedestrian by X-Files standards. Two Russian guys doing some experiments with illegal transplants- woo hoo! Whilst I'm glad they dropped the convoluted alien 'mythology' story lines and opted for the 'monster of the week' approach couldn't the makers have come up with something more substantial and interesting than the plot we get? As it is Mulder and Scully getting little to in the way of investigating with answers largely coming the way of the psychic ex-priest played by Billy Connelly. There is little to justify the idea of the FBI pardoning Mulder for his help when he really doesn't get to use any of his supposed expertise or experience when what he mostly does is say "Yeah, we should pay attention to the psychic guy".
The movie clumsily lurches between the X-File investigation storyline and the personal stuff between Mulder and Scully and the two parts do not really gel together. The investigation of the X-File itself was only underwhelming and dully executed but the dramatic stuff between Mulder and Scully is excruciatingly painful. It contains the two of them exchanging what must be some of the worst dialogue I've seen, certainly since the Star Wars prequels, in a heavy handed po-faced manner which makes the scenes drag even more than they need to and makes the crap they are spouting seem even sillier. Mostly it is tedious bickering (If this is Mulder and Scully as a couple I sure preferred it when it was a will they or won't they situation) and pretentious failed attempts at being meaningful that will illicit either groans or giggles. There is also a tedious and heavy handed subplot about Scully reaching a dilemma over a patient of hers which is ultimately a regurgitation of the scepticism/belief crises she would face on the TV show on a regular basis.
The new FBI characters are given nothing interesting to do, the villains are boring and unmemorable and the only decent character is Connolly's disgraced priest, who at least has some personality with all the actors, including Duchovny and Anderson, simply spewing out their dialogue in a robotic 'I don't want to be here' fashion. It was nice to see Skinner back but his last minute appearance comes across as completely perfunctory and unnecessary.
Even if you were a fan of the TV series I would recommend steering well clear of this one.
Things seemed okay for the first twenty minutes or so whilst the mystery was being established, kind of seeming like a middling episode of the TV series but it went downhill fast. The story might have done for an episode of the series but really does not do to fill out the length of the movie, providing some rather uninteresting foes for Mulder and Scully to face and the answers when they are provided are rather anticlimactic and pedestrian by X-Files standards. Two Russian guys doing some experiments with illegal transplants- woo hoo! Whilst I'm glad they dropped the convoluted alien 'mythology' story lines and opted for the 'monster of the week' approach couldn't the makers have come up with something more substantial and interesting than the plot we get? As it is Mulder and Scully getting little to in the way of investigating with answers largely coming the way of the psychic ex-priest played by Billy Connelly. There is little to justify the idea of the FBI pardoning Mulder for his help when he really doesn't get to use any of his supposed expertise or experience when what he mostly does is say "Yeah, we should pay attention to the psychic guy".
The movie clumsily lurches between the X-File investigation storyline and the personal stuff between Mulder and Scully and the two parts do not really gel together. The investigation of the X-File itself was only underwhelming and dully executed but the dramatic stuff between Mulder and Scully is excruciatingly painful. It contains the two of them exchanging what must be some of the worst dialogue I've seen, certainly since the Star Wars prequels, in a heavy handed po-faced manner which makes the scenes drag even more than they need to and makes the crap they are spouting seem even sillier. Mostly it is tedious bickering (If this is Mulder and Scully as a couple I sure preferred it when it was a will they or won't they situation) and pretentious failed attempts at being meaningful that will illicit either groans or giggles. There is also a tedious and heavy handed subplot about Scully reaching a dilemma over a patient of hers which is ultimately a regurgitation of the scepticism/belief crises she would face on the TV show on a regular basis.
The new FBI characters are given nothing interesting to do, the villains are boring and unmemorable and the only decent character is Connolly's disgraced priest, who at least has some personality with all the actors, including Duchovny and Anderson, simply spewing out their dialogue in a robotic 'I don't want to be here' fashion. It was nice to see Skinner back but his last minute appearance comes across as completely perfunctory and unnecessary.
Even if you were a fan of the TV series I would recommend steering well clear of this one.
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