THE X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE ** (out of ****) Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, Blythe Danner, Mitch Pillegi, John Neville, William B. Davis, Jeffrey DeMunn, Lucas Black, Terry O’Quinn, Glenne Headly, and Armin Mueller-Stahl Directed by Rob Bowman & written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, from characters created by Chris Carter 1998 PG13 For those unfamiliar with it, the eight-or-nine season Fox television program “The X-Files” follows the adventures of FBI agents Mulder and Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, almost never referring to one another by their first names) as they investigate mysteries involving the paranormal.  This includes most of the standard supernatural stuff, like vampires, aliens, zombies, ghosts, cannibalism, time travel, demonic possession, parallel universes, Satan, et cetera (you can do a lot in eight seasons).  “The X-Files” also invents some specters of its own, including this guy who can stretch himself real thin, live off human livers, and stay young after a hundred and fifty years.  They crushed him in an escalator. Anyway, like “Star Trek” before it, which brilliantly filters its vision of the unknown through a three-way lens of mind-body-and-soul, represented by Spock, Kirk, and McCoy, “The X-Files” embodies scientific cynicism in Agent Scully and idealistic credulity in Agent Mulder.  Like two halves to one mind, it’s fascinating to watch them at work, Mulder always assuming that aliens, zombies, or magic is responsible, while Scully comes up with a science-sounding way to say “bullfeathers!”  The truth is usually somewhere in between, and the show is more about the interaction of these two approaches to the unknown than about special effects.  The series began with a too-small budget for much in the way of visuals, but was always able to work around this without looking too campy.  To the credit of “The X-Files,” Mulder and Scully are never completely pigeon-holed as “skeptic” and “believer;” we are reminded that their surface paradigms may not go all the way to the core when Mulder is portrayed as an agnostic, and Scully as a Roman Catholic. “The X-Files” was started in the early 1990s by Chris Carter, who wrote Disney’s “The B.R.A.T. Patrol,” worked as a writer on “Midnight Caller,” and who later when on to create the series “Millennium,” starring a perpetually-moody Lance Henriksen.  At the height of the show’s popularity, a one-hit wonder recorded a song called “David Duchovny,” which includes the rhymes “why don’t you love me” and “I’m gonna kill Scully.”  Also, the FBI’s website actually had “is there really a department called the X-Files?” on its FAQ page.  The answer is, of course, no.  But die-hard fans of the show know better than to believe their deceitful government. Ah, the deceitful government.  Episodes of “The X-Files” can be divided into two categories:  those following the “mythology” and those that do not.  The mythology involves a giant government conspiracy to pretty much sell humanity to a race of aliens, as well as a second alien race’s attempt to destroy humanity to prevent the evil aliens from harvesting them.  Or something like that.  Non-mythology episodes have to do with everything else, like ghosts, goblins, vampires, time travel, and so forth.  These episodes are good more often than not, even when Robert Patrick was brought in as a new agent to replace David Duchovny in the last two innings. In the first four or five seasons, the mythology episodes are also very good.  We never see the aliens, or anything from their point-of-view.  Like the agents, we only catch glimpses of their diabolical plan, operated by humans or clones, and usually involving factories and laboratories, hidden away in the countryside, tucked away in the big city, or in a far-off foreign land.  Mulder and Scully usually find themselves running through the dark with almost-comically intense flashlights, shouting each other’s last name. But the movie, “The X-Files:  Fight the Future,” is the beginning of the end, when I realize with a sinking heart that the mythology has come off the rails.  Afterwards, all is build-up with no pay-off, and a repetitive build-up at that.  More shadowy encounters in parking garages, more hidden labs, more secret factories, more twists and more turns; the show starts running in increasingly uninteresting circles.  Some of the best movies of recent years have been all build-up, with resolutions that can only be found in the interpretations of the viewers.  “Mulholland Drive,” “Russian Ark,” and “Eyes Wide Shut” all fit this description.  I was entranced by their auras of mystery, not by the hope for a resolution.  But “Fight the Future” and the dying seasons of “The X-Files” try holding this trance for too long. Page two of "The X-Files."                                                 Back to home.