X-Files - I Want To Believe - A good film (but not a successful one)

`The X-files: I Want to Believe' was the second big screen tie-in to be spawned from the excellent TV series. However, if failed to set the box office alight and also was met with a lukewarm reaction from the fans (of which I am one). I loved all nine series of the sci-fi drama, tuning in each week to watch the two FBI agents, Mulder and Scully, as they tracked down one supernatural mystery after the next.

As I mentioned, the X-files went on for a colossal nine series, covering everything from alien abduction, to pyrokinesis and artificial intelligence. Therefore, it was fair to say that it had a rich (supernatural) background from which to build on. Fans naturally expected it to somehow continue from the end of the ninth series (concentrating on the conspiracy between sinister alien forces and a splinter-cell of the American government to take over the world). However, it didn't.

The second X-files movie is a very condensed little piece which, although uses the main characters, doesn't really feel much like part of the series. It's a stand-alone affair which, amazingly (and in some people's opinion - unforgivably), doesn't really have that much to do with the paranormal. Yes, there's a priest who has psychic powers, but that element feels pretty underutilised during the whole story.

What you have here, rather than a film which is very much sci-fi/conspiracy (keeping in tone with the series), is one which is - almost - a standard FBI vs Serial killer movie. You could almost have removed the small psychic element and simply had Scully and Mulder hunt down someone harvesting body parts.

I'm tempted to say that, if you like the series, you'll like this, but most people didn't. I didn't either the first time I watched it. I expected something big and loud and filled with aliens and double-crossing. What I got was something smaller and more subtle. Now I've seen it a second time, I like it a little more. But, as many said about Star Trek 9: Insurrection, it felt more like an extended TV episode rather than a cinematic vehicle to re-launch the X-files onto a new generation. So, if you like cops tracking down serial killer type movies then you'll probably like this. It's not bad, it's just not what I and many other die-hard X-files fans were expecting (I'd still be first in line if they ever announced an `X-files 3' movie though!).

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that