So, this X-Files 2 thing seems to be quite big (however not as big as the Indy 4 thing that now has fans looking at soundtrack track listings for clues, sheesh!). Oddly enough, the conspiracies discussed in X-Files are mirrored on the fan sites and blogs discussing them! Will Mulder and Scully kiss? Are there werewolves? So on, and so on. It's quite interesting, but none of it comes close to being as interesting as it is that a sequel is being made 10 years after the last film. Yeah, the 19 year gap for Indy 4 is insane, but Steven Spielberg helmed flicks versus TV turned movie franchises are a completely different story.

My experience with "The X-Files" up to this point included watching the first episode and never watching it again. I remember it was when FX picked up the show for syndication and were pubbing it as "Go back to when it all started". The starting from episode one thing, and seeing them all right in a row sounded perfect to me. Unfortunately I wasn't interested in the first episode and had sports and other things to do and never gave it a second chance. So, to say my knowledge is limited is an understatement, but I do know the whole gist of the franchise and falling into the first film was quite easy.

In a nut shell, X-Files: Fight for the Future was pretty good. I would probably give it a "B-" or a "B". I will say they seemed to have a hard time getting into the story and the finale in Antarctica was so obviously done on a stage that it really is a shame they didn't have a larger effects budget, because the falling ice was a pretty bad ass idea. Other than that, the meaty second act kept me looking at the running time on the DVD player hoping I wasn't too close to the end.

However, there was one thing that bothered me to no end, and that was for the majority of the film Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) continued to call each other Mulder and Scully.

It's a nit-picky remark, but it reminded me of a comic book that spends the first 15 pages letting you know the names of all the characters. We get it guys, the red headed girl is Scully and the guy is Mulder. Locked and loaded.

Luckily the flick was able to get its legs in the second act and the introduction of Martin Landau and even Armin Mueller-Stahl were quite welcome and proved this is more than just a TV show gone movie. The creature effects were decent and well framed considering it doesn't seem like they were given a large budget so a lot had to be concealed. And the Alien-like birthing process is always a winner as was the opening scene with the kid getting infected, that was actually something they should have repeated and in a far more gruesome manner.

One thing that really impressed me with this flick was Gillian Anderson. She does quite well with the Scully role and it is amazing actually that she wasn't scooped up for a new TV series featuring her as some bad ass cop. A role she proves she can handle and handle quite well without losing hints of femininity. Then there's Duchovny, whom I have actually started to really like as of late, especially after his small part in the fantastic Things We Lost in the Fire.

Perhaps my favorite part of the whole thing is the way they are able to legitimize the working relationship between Mulder and Scully. Too often characters get thrown together, "He's the kick ass cop, while she's the deep thinker." Now, I don't know a whole lot about how these two got teamed together, but from what I can gather she was supposed to be some doctor type and Mulder was seen as some alien-conspiracy theorist. She was teamed with him to bring science into the equation, which was supposed to ultimately shut him up, but soon science led to aliens and that led to a match made in heaven. I just like the fact that Scully's talents aren't just made up, they seem legit and work well with her character.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and am now slightly interested to see where they go with X-Files 2. If there weren't nine seasons of the show I would probably try to give those a watch as well, but I am not going to bog down my NetFlix queue with entire seasons of television shows. Perhaps Fox has a complete series set on DVD they could put in the mail. Huh? Eh? No? Okay.

The fact that we are only now seeing a sequel to X-Files is baffling considering this film begs for a sequel, and I don't know, perhaps the series covered what happens at the end of the film, but somewhere there is a story to be told. The critics gave it pretty good reviews scoring a 65% at RottenTomatoes and it ended up making just shy of $84 million at the box-office. Considering Fox will put just about any piece of trash into production it is amazing they held off on what could have been a winning franchise until 10 years after the previous film did quite well.

Rumors had a sequel releasing once the series finished back in 2002, but it wasn't until last year that all the pieces came together once again. X-Files 2 hits theaters on July 25th. Stay tuned as we have some beefy coverage coming your way next week and up until the release of the film.

Related post categories: Cinematic Revival, Features : The X Files, The X-Files: I Want to Believe

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