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I just started getting into X-Files. If I had watched only that movie I wouldn't bother moving forward. It's X-Files in name only. It's a sub-par "Beyond the Sea." It's boring, lacking any paranormal elements, and has some bad performances thrown in. Sure Mulder and Scully are nice to see back together, but they're hardly together at all. And Scully's plot is horrible. The ending? What ending? Skinner's nice, but I'm not a big enough fan to feel the nostalgia for him. Overall, it's average and dull, but you'd think with six years they would've come up with something better. Carter couldn't do something closer to "The Host," if he didn't want to do a mytharc movie?

- C+

By the way, I went with an obsessed X-Files friend who blasted reviewers and thought X-Files could do no wrong. He came out disappointed with the same thought of, "This is what they came up with??"

FWIW, I went with three female, old school, hardcore, obsessed, X-Files fans of widely varying ages - - and they went gaga over it - - I won't presume to write what each thought about it when they came out, but they couldn't say enough positive things about the approach the movie had taken...

I went to see this with the creators of X-Files and Gillian Anderson and David Duchovney...

They ALL hated it.

Bradley girls obviously don't count. Throw in a kiss between Mulder and Scully and they were bound to wet their panties over it.

Heh. You're right - - women are always an unpredictable wild card for us fanboys. Though in the case of the X-Files TV series, there was surely an inordinately high ratio of fangirls.

...but in the case of my own undergarments, it wasn't the kiss that did it for me, but rather the brilliantly realistic real-time character development in the decade that had passed in the relationship between Mulder and Scully. It rang absolutely true for me. It was sooooooo romantic!

The females are easily corrupted by bad movies when it involves a couple. I know a friend who along with his girlfriend (both are fans) watched the show and the girl had seen it 3x already. She liked the film and thought it flowed nicely from where the series ended. The guy didn't dislike the film but had no intention of seeing it again. As for me, I was a big fan of xfiles way back since it started but tailed off when Mulder left and didn't even watch the series finale and I found the movie very uninteresting overall.

Ay yi yi...

The movie never seemed to go into high gear, it just weared on, kinda boring. I also expected more from the story. 5/10

My wife may be the biggest X-Files fangirl in the world. She watched the show religiously, has all the DVDs, and even has a David Duchovny screen worn shirt hanging on our wall.

However, she was thoroughly disappointed in the movie. She liked seeing Mulder and Scully together again and thought anything was better than nothing, but she really thought the movie didn't jibe well with the TV show or previous movie. Her words was that it was a 'paint by numbers' serial killer movie with the X-Files name slapped on it.

So, not every fangirl loved the movie!

SEE!!!

I enjoyed it. The mystery was good even though it was a bit weak. It felt quite nice to see something quite basic. It just had the story. I should also say that I've never seen an episode of the series before. I guess if you're a fan who has been waiting years then you might be disappointed. It is quite ironic that this movie might actually play better to people who haven't seen the series before then fans.

Incredibly average. I enjoyed myself to a certain extent, but for the most part the storyline is so cliched and uninteresting. It plays out like any other crime procedural and it felt like many random "X-Files"-like story devices were thrown in to make it seem more like the series (which it apparently isn't, since there's absolutely no supernatural element in place here aside from one character being a psychic pedophile :p ). Granted, I've never seen an episode of the show before, but seriously, so much of it felt incredibly unoriginal. The entire 'kidnapping' sequences felt like they were directly lifted from The Silence of the Lambs, for example. After a while it just became kind of boring. However, I'm making it sound worse than it actually is. Parts of the film do work quite well. The relationship between Scully and Mulder was great and the two actors had wonderful chemistry together. I also really enjoyed Gillian Anderson's performance in particular. Amanda Peet does a solid job in a supporting role, but rapper Xzibit is beyond atrocious. Many action sequences work (I loved the whole chase scene and the kidnapping sequence in the snow) and the direction is very atmospheric and creepy. But the biggest problem that this film faces is it really feels like a television movie - and I think that if it was released as such reaction wouldn't be nearly as harsh. Anyways, passable, but I'll probably forget everything about it within the next few days. C/C+

I've read many comments along those lines, but to me, if they can keep the budget down (as they did here) and manage to make one of these (essentially equivalent to a series two-parter) episodes every two years for the next 25 years - - it'd be like a full bonus season of X-Files. Who knows with the way the broadcast network television model is collapsing so quickly, this might just be the future for cult series' like this. In a way it's like they did with Futurama, though that went direct to video, with a network run to follow. Anyway they play it, I'm happy to get to watch this episode and with any luck, futture episodes featuring the ever-lovin' Mulder & Scully...

Yeah, this is pretty lame.

I could simply repeat the complaints of countless other X-Philes before me - it's not cinematic enough, it's not supernatural enough, it's not interesting enough - but that would truly not to justice to the abortion of a screenplay. They basically throw in as many topical issues and references to past episodes as they can, and pretty much nothing sticks. Thought Mulder's sister was dealt with? Guess again. Thought Scully was done wrestling with her Catholicism? Nope. If you like, we've also got comments on stem cell research, genetic testing, black market organ trafficking, church pedophilia, gay marriage, and government conspiracies. Look how relevant we are! Too bad we forgot to include any, y'know, X-Files stuff.

On top of that, it's also pretty terribly acted and directed all around. Neither Duchovny or Anderson bring anything remotely new to the table, as Mulder and Scully seem to have regressed into season 3 form. The addition of Skinner was a nice shout-out to the fans, but the new agents are basically pointless and annoying (though it did make for possibly the worst death sequence I've ever seen). And Carter seems to have no idea how to make a full-length movie, as his showy pans and cuts to seemingly memorable shots are just one step above Mulder winking to the camera (especially that Dubya moment - WTF?).

I can't help but feel an enormous sense of disappointment. This - THIS?!? - is what they came up with after how many years of contract negotiations and script rewrites. What happened to the werewolf rumours? What happened to the promises of a 'monster of the week' episode? What happened to making a fucking decent movie? Instead we get head transplants and terminally ill children. What a disgrace to the show.

Well said, trixster.

4/10 -> D

Oh my. Duchovny and Anderson are still Mulder and Sully, but the whole material they've been given to work with is incredibly awful. This was like a lame one hour episode stretched into two hours. It didn't do a lot for the show mythology, it didn't do a lot for the characters - they tried to but everything fell incredibly flat.

What a miss...

For the first 20 minutes, I was thinking this was just the victim of expectations. 10 years after the last movie, people expect big, apocalyptic things. So credit the filmmakers for making a tight, spooky, cheap stand alone story that can be a springboard to better adventures.

BZZZZT! Wrong.

This is a terrible, terrible, movie, and I can't believe anyone thought this script was satisfactory. People throw this phrase around a lot, but for once it's true: this really is just an episode of the TV show. A lame one. With no climax or villians or danger. You could have shot this same script on the TV shows' budget.

I still don't know what Mulder and Scully are doing in this movie. The reason for bringing him in to the case are just vague enough that they don't have to bother actually giving us a reason. The two leads are remarkably passive protagonists in the proceedings until the woeful last 20 minutes.

Can someone explain the geography to me? It seemed like the hospital and Fox's house were reasonably far away from the perpetually snowy villages this was taking place in. But as the movie progresses, all those locations and a major city of some kind all seem to be within five minutes of each other.

Sorry to hear ya didn't like it, but I was very satisfied with the script. It's primarily a character study - - a wonderfully subtle one showing well known characters after the passage of time...

trixster took the words right out of me, the script was an abortion of writing.

this is the best they could muster? fucking ridiculous.

D

This wouldn't have even stood muster as a lazy mid season break between story arc's. They were extremely lucky to get a chance to make this film and this is what they wasted the chance on? Depressing.

Lame.

Since all the other issues I have (plot holes, dullness, pointless characters, non-villains, poor writing) have already been gone over I'll just mention one thing that annoyed me: I'm so so sick of the endless parade of non-believers in movies--not just this one--who are painted as stubborn people who won't think outside of their little box and consider/accept that maybe____(insert character/situation/etc here) really is a sign from god or a higher power or whatever.

It's been done to death and it'd be really refreshing for some more movies where the non-believers who base their thoughts/actions on crazy things like facts/reason/logic actually end up being right but that would require some filmmakers who want to think outside the box themselves so maybe I shouldn't hold my breath for that.

Finally just saw it on HBO

Having fallen away with The X-Files since the last movie. I just couldn't find time to watch it on TV anymore, I find this to be a good movie to watch at home. Because it is frankly more like a TV movie. It's nothing great but in that perspective its a good time passer with characters that were still fun to watch. It's budget was only 30 million and made about 90 million with DVDs when all is said and done.

I hope they do another one because I always like science fiction films, but they just need to be a little more daring then this safe film.

C as a movie (Solid B as a tv movie.)