"X-Files" has failed us

In a key medical meeting, Dr. Dana Scully explained that her young patient could still be saved, via stem-cell implants. Then? Well, then she retreated to her office and Googled "stem cell implants."

At this point, someone next to me muttered: "What, doctors.com wasn't available?"

And at this point, I completely lost confidence in the "X-Files" movie. Here are a few of my thoughts; please add yours:

1) We had waited so long for this film. It was six years since the end of the series, a decade since the only previous "X-Files" movie. We'd expected something superb.

2) Instead, we got something terribly ordinary in every way. It was sort of like an episode of the "X-Files" series, only not one of the really good ones.

3) For starters, this was such a small, ordinary story. The original "X-Files" movie had a scope to its plot and to its visuals. This was a simple little story, confined to a few spots, including a farmhouse not too far from the FBI headquarters.

4) That odd visual feel even carried over to Scully's new workplace. It's a hospital, but inexplicably seems to have gone unchanged since the 1950s.

5) There, Scully somehow works as both a pediatric general practitioner and as a skilled neuro-surgeon. "Maybe she looked up surgery on wikipedia," someone speculated.

6) While Googling about, she accidentally solved Fox Mulder's case. Except, of course, for the usual problems of people bursting into bad-guy places, one or two at a time, without calling for back-up. The FBI seemed to use 20 people to search one snowy field, two people tops to raid a fierce trouble spot.

7) It was all so ordinary in look, feel, dialog and intelligence. If people have this for their first "X-Files" experience, they'll have trouble believing that this series had moments of greatness.

8) Then again, prices at Meridian Outer Six ($4 before 4 p.m.) make any movie seem sort of worth it.

9) And new people keep trying to capture the original, "X-Files" magic. We're only five weeks away from the terrific debut of Fox's new "Fringe."

10) Until then? Well, go rent some "X-Files" rerun. Or read more about it online -- instead of turning to, say, brainsurgery.com.

Comments

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Thank you.
I completely agree with everything you said. Except, I paid $7.50 for my matinee yesterday, making it so much worse. I think paying any price to see this was a rip off though.
This movie was a total, complete disgrace to the last movie and the series. Its a huge black eye for X-files' reputation, not to be healed for quite some time. Another movie is all that can save it. It will have to kick ass too. But will anyone see it? I will have my reservations for sure.
I felt more ripped off than from a Night Shyamalan movie.
And I hate that guy and his movies.