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The X-Files
*1/2
Cinema
Releases - August 21,
1998
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by Rob Bowman. Written by Chris Carter; from a story
by Carter and Frank Spotnitz. Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson,
Martin Landau, Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Blythe
Danner.
"The X-Files" begins so dishearteningly
that it never recovers. In the opening scene, silly goblins and cavemen growl
at each other, and have some fight which results in something that was supposed
to be dramatic. I couldn't tell what that was, but I laughed anyway. Then,
millions of years later, some hick kids find their bones and grunt irritating
things like: "Hey, butt-wop, there's bones ever'-dang-wher'!"
This is directed with such poor coverage and edited
so sloppily that these scenes, and those directly following, almost seem
like they're happening in the same time and place. What does directly follow
is a lot of panic with big trucks and some guy in a suit calling up his boss
and telling him "The horrible situation we never thought would happen has
happened!" We do eventually find out just what that is, after it gets to
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, and they investigate. What is eventually discovered
does actually make sense, and could be scary, but the dialogue that is chosen
to express it makes it seem ludicrous.
You know who Mulder and Scully are, right? They're
the two FBI agents in the TV show this film is based on, "The X-Files". Played
by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, they have obvious sexual chemistry
that the show will never let them realise, to carry on the silly debate between
the show's fanatics of whether they will or not. In that show they have a
convincing rapport and good dialogue under direction which allows appropriate
performances. Here, however, Duchovny's Mulder is not a likeable enigma who
ponders fascinating things, but a freak who rambles pretentious rubbish.
Anderson is no longer the rational straight-figure, but a wimp who overacts,
shouting and screaming when she's not whining that she's going to quit the
FBI.
Many of the lines in the film seem to be said
out of context, although I'm not defending the lines, especially when I think
about all the inappropriate, cheesy wisecracks that Mulder is given, even
after he is told that a terrorist bomb has killed several people. The film
often seems like a mass of nonsensical, hollow words and actions, going slowly
with little atmosphere. The scenes that do have atmosphere are intriguing,
and at times I during "The X-Files" I felt an affection for the film creeping
up on me. But that affection was always quickly crushed by the mass of dross
present in the movie, and I was depressed to think of the potential that
had gone unrealised -- when I watched the show I was always conscious that
the material could have made a great movie.
Maybe the reason the film seemed so muddled was
because it is, apparently, the continuation of an episode? I don't know.
I shouldn't have to watch a TV series to follow a film, and I resent being
shown a tacky attempt to sucker people into an "only in theatres" episode
of a TV series.
One last thought. For a film which is only an
episode in a TV series, it isn't half overblown. "The X-Files" seems to have
been made with an eye to spending all the budget that it could raise, and
has explosions, avalanches, shootouts and complicated buildings full of killer
bees. It can't decide whether it wants to satisfy those with an obsessive
special interest or those looking for a spectacle, and I can't decide if
it will satisfy either.
COPYRIGHT©
1998 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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