Watch The X Files: I Want to Believe For Free

Wonderful character development!

Truly Dreadful Film

Sadly Over-hyped

An Exercise In Nonsense

Just as FIGHT THE FUTURE was the perfect bridge between seasons 5 and 6 of the TV series, I WANT TO BELIEVE sits at the center of the fourteen year gap between seasons 9 and 10. Having moved on -apart- for several years, Mulder and Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson) must reunite in order to solve a particularly grisly new case. Director and X-FILES hoodoo guru extraordinaire, Chris Carter pays homage to everything from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS / SEVEN to HOSTEL and even FRANKENSTEIN! Toss in Billy Connolly as a psychic, pedophile priest, and we're off to the paranormal races! Amanda Peet is quite good in her role as lead FBI agent, Dakota Whitney. Don't blink, or you might miss Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) in his extended cameo appearance! Highly recommended for both fans and casual viewers of the show...

The X files: I want to believe is a very interesting film to watch. It does feature a pretty good mystery, i will give it that. And the acting was good and enjoyable, of course David does well. The execution of the plot is pretty good, even though some scenes do drag a little bit. Some of the images in the film are rather disturbing, I'll just leave it at that, I don't want to give any spoilers away. This film could've been a good bit better I'm not going to lie about that. Even though it could've been better doesn't mean that it's completely not worth watching though. I would say that if you are or were a fan of the X Files television show, then you most likely will not be disappointed with X Files: I want to believe. The ending, when they finally come to a conclusion about the mystery at hand, is pretty well done and satisfying enough, at least it was for me. Overall I have to give this film a 6/10, the rating could've been higher, but some scenes did in fact drag, and the script could have been a little more developed.

X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008): Dir: Chris Carter / Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet, Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner: Worthwhile followup to the hit film ten years prior. Why a sequel is released this much later is requiring too much faith in the popularity of the show. Theme is a question of faith, whether in religion or science. Mulder and Scully are back when females go missing and a male severed arm is found buried in snow. Director Chris Carter is backed by fine production and a worthy screenplay. Gillian Anderson returns as Scully who is now a surgeon. David Duchovny returns as Mulder whom isolated himself. Both leads are solid as they reunite and investigate the case. Billy Connolly steals scenes as a psychic Priest with a questionable past. He will have visions to further the case but will never be able to clear his past no matter whether he solves this case or not. Amanda Peet as an FBI agent is unfortunately flat and only seems to be there as a possible romantic tease as if viewers had no faith in the relationship between the two leads. Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner plays a special agent. While reminding us of the show's popularity, religious elements may offend certain viewers, particularly the view of Christians. Others may want to believe that this series may have run its course on the big screen. Score: 7 ½ / 10

I guarantee you, once the movie's over, you will have already forgotten most of it. There is such a disconnect between the core cast, the murderer, and the murderer's victims, it's like they're all in different films. There are no stakes, there's no real villain. Billy Connolly's character contains the heart of the film, which is why it's especially bizarre that in the denouement scene we're simply told "Father Joseph died." Mulder and Scully's constant shifting from believer to skeptic and back again had already gotten old by the end of the TV show. 10 years on, with the zeitgeist having shifted noticeably away from conspiracy and supernatural wonder, Mulder needs to re-establish what it is that he believes, why he believes it, and why "belief" is a worthy pursuit at all. This movie seems to want to tackle those subjects but fails. It's competently shot, and I suspect that a lot of it's problems stem from editing and rewrites, but this film is a near total failure, both as a good story, and even as fan-service. Think of it as The Silence. Unless you're looking directly at it, you'd never know it existed at all.