Watching the continuing adventures of FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) was a thoroughly engrossing and fun experience from the 90's as the two intrepid detectives went in search for and prove unexplained phenomena such as ghosts, monsters and a conspiracy involving the major powers of the world and an evil alien race intent on colonising the planet. The latter had become a somewhat frustrating experience in the television series as only hints were ever dropped about what was going on between the government and the aliens; it was thought that the feature film coming hot on the heels of Season 5 of the television show would offer some big explanations but unfortunately, this film is just as elusive as the show, which I'm sure disappointed many fans out there.
This DVD presents a slightly edited film which includes a couple of more scenes which actually provide some definitive answers which were left out of the theatrical release and one has to wonder why they were left out in the first place. Those few minutes would have probably sold more tickets, but that's the benefit of hindsight. Aside from that, "The X-Files Movie" is just as entertaining as the television series, more so in a number of instances as it takes advantage of the big widescreen format available for cinema.
The film opens 37,000 years ago with two prehistoric men discovering an underground cave which houses an alien virus which has the ability to infect a human host, turn that host into an incubator, create a new alien, and then discard the host when the alien is ready to jump out and start living. No, this is not a re-run of "Alien", as this is part of a larger framework dealing with a government conspiracy in which a shadow government is assisting these same aliens to colonise the planet. When we first see Mulder and Scully, they're searching a couple of buildings pertaining to a bomb threat; they're off the X-Files and bored because of it. Mulder eventually finds the bomb, but the FBI agent in charge orders them all out under the pretense that he will defuse the bomb, but instead, he allows it to blow up. Mulder and Scully are framed for the accident; at this time, Mulder is contacted by a paranoid director Alvin Kurtzweil (Martin Landau) who points him in the direction of a virus outbreak in suburban Texas. As Mulder and Scully begin to investigate, they slowly peel back clue after clue leading to the shadow government, why they blew up that building, and what their grander plans are for all of us on this planet.
The movie hits all the marks that made the television show work so well, and then some. It's a major highlight to see these characters on the big screen, and there's no sense that the characters or the situations they are in have been lost in translation to the big screen. The film gets you intrigued right from the beginning with its unusual extended prologue, beginning in the Ice Age and then coming forward to the present day with the shadow government clamping down at the site where the alien virus outbreak commences. This setup gives you the feeling that quite a bit will be revealed, especially as the aliens' plans change, forcing the shadow government to change theirs. Unfortunately, the more the running time passes, the more you realise they're running out of time to drop some bombshells about the story, and it's only in the one scene where Mulder crosses-path with the Well Manicured Man that we finally get some clarity to what's happening. As a film that had the tag line, "The Truth Is Coming...", the final execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Having said this however, the story is still quite entertaining. If you'd never watched "The X-Files" before, this film works very well as a stand-alone story and will likely get you interested in watching the television show. Duchovny and Anderson are as likeable as ever in the main leads, and the film continues the relationship tension between them without ever consummating it. The stellar supporting cast from the show including Mitch Pileggi as Skinner, William B. Davis as the Cancer Man, and John Neville as the Well Manicured Man all hit the spot as they usually do. The filmmakers have assembled a great guest cast as well, headlined by a perfect Martin Landau who really sells the paranoid doctor role, Armin Mueller-Stahl as the mysterious leader of the shadow government and Blythe Danner as an FBI investigator who casts a disbelieving eye on Mulder and Scully's activities.
The film looks extraordinarily good. Director Rob Bowman really takes advantage of the big screen and composes some fabulous images. The cutting of the opening prologue is perhaps the most interesting in the film, particularly the way it draws you in to the mystery of the film. The effects are well done; the black oil virus running behind people's eyes is creepy, and the final sequence in Antarctica where an alien spaceship blasts its way out from under the ice is an eye-opening visual, particularly the crater it leaves behind in its wake. The film also manages to throw in some of the show's trademark scares and creepy, dark atmosphere.
The X-Files Movie is a solid entry for the franchise, but is likely to disappoint fans who expected more answers from the story.
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