I'm not sure if we all loved The X-Files in the 90's because
it was good or because it was really the only game on television. It was, at
the time, the only successful, interesting science fiction / horror television
show in existence. And the fact that it occasionally did something really,
really well (especially in the first four or five years) made it must watch
television for genre fans. But we all know what happened there. Yes we do. It
floundered. It stumbled. It belly flopped onto concrete. By the last few
seasons when they couldn't even keep the star of the show involved no matter
what they did. Move the production to a warmer climate, give him more control
over stories - jump through whatever hoops and it still got to the point where
even he felt the show needed something that wasn't him. Or maybe it just needed
a real direction.
Because that was the show's core problem. It had no direction. Which would have been fine for a cool, creepy monster of the week science fiction series but that was deemed to not be enough. It had to be BIG. And so, creator Chris Carter started getting high on his own supply. He began telling everyone that the series was going to bring all the pieces together from all the various extraterrestrial stories that had fuzzy endings (or no ending) and we'd see that there was a huge alien invasion conspiracy that the government knew about and was covering up or helping to happen that involved colonization and black oil and human alien hybrids or.....something! But it all would eventually come together and make some kind of damned sense! Really! He promised.
Because that was the show's core problem. It had no direction. Which would have been fine for a cool, creepy monster of the week science fiction series but that was deemed to not be enough. It had to be BIG. And so, creator Chris Carter started getting high on his own supply. He began telling everyone that the series was going to bring all the pieces together from all the various extraterrestrial stories that had fuzzy endings (or no ending) and we'd see that there was a huge alien invasion conspiracy that the government knew about and was covering up or helping to happen that involved colonization and black oil and human alien hybrids or.....something! But it all would eventually come together and make some kind of damned sense! Really! He promised.
But I've grown. If I've not grown wiser or less filled with
unfocused anger at least I've grown less violent. Chris Carter is safe from me.
For now. Surfing putz.
So now the return of The X-Files in a six-episode mini-series
for Fox television has caused me to want to go back and reevaluate the original
series. I don't mean I want to go back and watch the entire nine year run - I'm
just not going to invest that much time in the damned show - but I was curious
enough to finally sit down and watch one piece of the X-Files history that I
have left unviewed - the second feature film from 2008. The first X-Files
film was made during the heyday of the show's original run and was so bad that
it made me want to cry right there in the theater. In fact it was the hideous
nature of that first film that may have started my complete turnaround on the
series or at least initiated and influenced or simply expanded upon the doubts
that I had been having about the show for some time at that point. Needless to
say long before the original run of the show ended I punched out and I couldn't
even tell you what happened in the final miserable season. I think I saw two or
three episodes. So when THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE came out long after the
series had gone to that great rerun junkyard in the sky I didn't care. Indeed, almost
everyone I knew was so unconcerned I don't think I know any person that has
seen it. But with this new resurgence of interest and all this talk around it
- well - I decided now was the time. And for $4 a Blu-Ray is cheap so what the
hell, huh?
I chose the longer cut - I am, after all, a lunatic - and
once I was thirty minutes in I was shocked to realize that I was enjoying the
movie! This was not the coincidence fueled series of disconnected sequences of
the first film. This thing actually made sense. Not that there isn't one
intuitive leap late in the story that stretched credulity a bit (Bible quote
leads to mail box) but, in total, this is a damned good little science fiction
thriller. Clearly Carter didn't write most of this or it would have devolved into a hot mess in the first reel so I was not surprised to see Frank Spotnitz listed on the screenplay.
He was responsible for several good episodes of the original series as well as
being currently in charge of the excellent Amazon show The Man in the High Castle
3 comments:
I saw both X-Files films in the theater. First one in the drive-in, which was a perfect venue for it. (I didn't hate it, like you did.) And the second one is quite good -- though now I have to go see if the "longer cut" is on my DVD, or if I have to spring for the blu.
In any case, I'm glad the show is back. And certainly the 2 non-Carter episodes so far have made it worth it, and far outweighed Carter's hot mess of a premier.
Hot mess is the perfect description of Carter's contribution to the new episodes so far. Morgan, Morgan and Wong know how to construct a show - Carter, not so much.
And that first film pissed me off so many ways! The BS plot construction, the idiotic character choices and the contrived coincidences just make me furious. And, plus - NO DAMNED ANSWERS TO ANYTHING!
My memory of the first film is that it was a series of interesting incidents with some kind of thread-bare connection stringing them all together. Which pretty much describes what the mythos devolved into, because he was just making it up as he went. I don't remember if I expected it to provide answers, though I do seem to recall that they tried to sell it that way. But, when the man behind the curtain doesn't really have any... (Not even a watch masquerading as a heart!)
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