The X-Files: Fight the Future

Director: Rob Bowman
Cast:
David Duchovny
Gillian Anderson
Mitch Pileggi
Martin Landau

Internet dorks unite! Nowhere in America is the line more dorky than the opening for the X-files movie, and I'm proud to have been one of the biggest cheeseballs there. Someone outside my local theater had a sign that actually said "Scully and Mulder Unfair to Aliens." I mean, they actually got out the magic markers and made it. Sometimes I wish I still possessed that strength of heart.

So the movie is ostensibly about the plot developments over the last season of the TV show, more specifically, the black oil that covers the eyes of unsuspecting humans, the mysteries of the Smoking Man, the secret shady deals of those 20 old guys who seem to run the universe, and whether Scully and Mulder finally smooch. Let's be honest here: You don't really find out about any of it.

The movie is actually nothing more than a really expensive, well-shot and exciting version of the show, and if you don't like the show, well, you'd probably be better off spending your money on Mulan. If you love the show, then the dirty work has been done for you. David Duchovny shines as Mulder, saucier and allowed to say more swear words than he can on the Fox network, and Gillian Anderson is just plain gorgeous on screen.

Like the show, however, the movie asks more questions than it answers, which, depending on your mood, either comes off as "cool" or "downright irresponsible." No insights are given to Mulder's sister, Scully's cancer, and a host of other weird plot developments that have ensued over the last two seasons. It does make the whole thing rather sequelicious, but hey guys, will ya throw us a bone, here???

—Ian Williams

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