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Marcus. -> RE: X Files Movie: I Want to Believe (7/28/2008 4:06:35 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: jazzact13
I thought it was ok. Middling. Lacking in some things, but ok in others.
Perhaps I should make this a bit of a spoiler, so I'll put the text in white.
The story was surprisingly tame for an x-file--no aliens, no mutants, no really strange creatures. We're left doubting the former priest's psychic abilities, and while we do get the occasional glimpse of the frankenstein-like man, it's almost always on an operating table and is not a part of the action.
X-Files could be pretty dramatic, but this was different. It had more the feel of a "Law and Order" or a "Criminal Minds" type of thing, rather then "X-Files".
I didn't really feel like an x-file for a few minutes, until we finally meet Mulder and he starts rambling about...something, in that way he can do. Then it felt better.
Mulder, then, was still Mulder. Scully, however, has changed. She's gone back into medicine, and seems much more interested in the real-world problems of helping and curing patients then in solving bizarre mysteries. In a way, Mulder and Scully have two almost completely different story lines in the movie, with hers being closer to something like "House".
If you're expecting clarifications from how the series ended, you'll be disappointed. We don't learned happened to Kirsch, Doggett, or Reyes. On the plus side, towards the end they do bring in Skinner, which was something I was hoping they would do.
Questions of ethics and morality do come in, and provide good source of tension. In order to cure a young patient, Scully uses some stem cell procedures. I couldn't tell from what she said if it was a statement about stem cells in general, or the use of embryonic stem cell, which would have been either pointed or tasteless as she worked at a Catholic hospital. Questions about the former priest, who had been a pedophile, and whether God hears his prayers are brought up.
It's not so much that I found it bad or disappointing, as it was simply not satisfying. It lacked the creepiness and strangeness of an episode, or even the first movie. It lacked the gloss and finish of many recent movies, which was fine, but the 'realism' wasn't enough.
Spoiler response in white also.
IMHO it would have fit into the the X Files milder plots. You had evil Russian doctors playing god by deciding that one man's life was worth several people's lives. You also had the debate about stem cells and end of life care. How far do you go to save a person's life? How much is a person's life worth? Not only in terms of money and resources but it was juxtaposed against the 'Frankenstein-like' procedures the Russian doctors engaged in. Did you notice it was the homosexuals who were the ones willing to kill many people to keep themselves alive despite the cost?
The pedophile priest's role was interesting. In a way he reminded me of Saul/Paul. There is the monster before the conversion and the penitent man who remained afterwards. Paul seemed acutely aware of his sins afterwards and called himself the least among the brethren. So to did the priest seem to be penitent to me. Can and would God really forgive someone for the sins of multiple murders or multiple rapes? And since He does what does that say about us who won't forgive the repentant sinner? I saw more of a morality play here than a true X File almost.
Matthew 6:14 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."
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