I once heard an Italian cardinal say that the point of religion isn’t so much to provide answers but to perpetuate mysteries, to keep God’s people in a state of wonder at creation. Answers put an end to faith. So “The X-Files’” technique of endless mystery has God’s seal of approval. But, unlike life’s mysteries, I have lost faith in the X-creator to know where everything is going. In the case of the three movies listed above, I was convinced that Lynch, Sokurov, and Kubrick all knew where everything would end. I lost faith in Chris Carter and his various writers to actually connect the movie and these new episodes into any logical mass. When “The X-Files” finally reached some kind of stilted, diluted, too late pay-off, I had stop caring.
“The X-Files: Fight the Future” is a quintessential off-the-rail mythology episode. The movie has higher production values than the television show, better guest stars, and runs twice as long, but it could have easily run for hours more without making a difference. In it, Mulder and Scully meet a Mysterious Guy (Oscar-winner Martin Landau) who urgently and vaguely tells them how the aliens are on the way. He sends them on what might be a wild goose chase, involving a blown-up office building used to cover up four dead bodies; a child infected with what might be an alien plague; many secret installations up to no good; and eventually to Antarctica. Nothing is resolved, nothing is really explained, and everything ends back where it began, ready for the next season of the show to begin, like a two-hour reminder of the program’s status quo. As in many of the later episodes, The Truth is spoken of in poetic, pseudo-religious, and infuriatingly vague terms. One of the joys of watching Robert Patrick in later episodes is how pissed off all this talk makes him.
“Fight the Future” looks glossy and good, and is directed by television veteran Rob Bowman, whose other credits include “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.,” “VR-5,” and “M.A.N.T.I.S.” With “Fight the Future” he makes an admirable but unsuccessful attempt to jump to the big screen. Without commercial breaks, the movie is oddly-paced and lacks the scope for the movie theater. The first six “Star Trek” movies feel like movies, but “Fight the Future” does not. Duchovny and Anderson are both fine actors, even outside “The X-Files”—watch “Kalifornia” and “The House of Mirth”—and deserve real big screen careers. It’s fun to hear Mulder and Scully use swear words, and they have a terrific chemistry.
Are they deep-down in love? The series, while it was still good, had fun toying with the notion that their quest to uncover the truth is so enormous that they had sublimated the entire idea of having personal lives, and so does the movie. Anyone who’s ever thought it would be neat to be a general, an author, a filmmaker, or a great scientist can probably understand the feeling.
Instead of reviewing “Fight the Future” I seem to have analyzed the deterioration of an above-average television show into a mediocre one. Perhaps this is not my place; besides cartoons like “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill,” I don’t particularly like television, and maybe am not equipped to rate it. There was once talk of making another “X-Files” movie, but I think that momentum has vanished. Maybe if you’ve never seen “The X-Files” on television you might be able to use “Fight the Future” as a place to start. It will certainly prepare you to not expect a satisfying resolution to the series. But if you want unexplained, unresolved weirdness, I’d see “Mulholland Drive,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” or “Russian Ark” first.
Finished April 10, 2003
Copyright © Friday & Saturday Night
Page one of "The X-Files." Back to home.