X-Files: I Want to Believe

Just as I had felt ill Saturday afternoon, Stephanie took ill Sunday afternoon. She stayed home as I rendezvoused with Vincent back in the Highlands/Mid-City Mall to watch a final Sunday matinee of the second “X-Files” movie connected with the departed Fox TV television series of the same name. We had watched the TV show pretty regularly and three of us had watched most of the first “X-Files” movie. You may know the term “X-Files” referred to the type of cases that FBI agents Scully (also a doctor) and Mulder took that involved either ghosts or monsters or the like (like the 1970s “The Night Stalker”) or a vast government-alien conspiracy, which took up the overall story arc of the show. The first movie had focused on this somewhat convoluted story arc (which no doubt helped inspire that of the current show “Lost”). This movie picks up several years after the end of the TV show. But the title refers less to the story arc (which surprised me a little, since the show ended with story arc episodes) and more to a theme of some other recent TV shows (a theme that I find equally if not more interesting) and also what is in some ways a conventional “X Files” TV case. Vincent complained that the movie focused too much on the relationship between Scully and Mulder, but I liked it. Unfortunately, the movie this past weekend got buried under the even better “Dark Knight,” making only $300 million in its first 10 days. The distributor said they were happy with the $10 million, that they had mainly attracted loyalists of the TV show, which is what they expected. But they have to be disappointed and spinning the relatively small returns. But, like Scully, I want to believe.

For more on the movie (spoiler alert), click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5HrxAXvQ6A

-- Perry