The X Files Movie [1998]
£4.00
New - Old Fan - I watched the whole of the original X Files when they were first on TV and loved the series. I have just purchased (and watched) the X Files movie and have to admit that it has re-kindled my love for this series. The film is as good, if not better than I expected and I suspect I will now start buying the whole TV series. So, if like me, you haven t watched the X Files for a few years, I can recommend this film. I loved it.
Fantastic stand alone with no loose ends! - This film is totally better than I remembered. Then again, I probably appreciate it more now with the glut of awful films to have been released over the past few years. Scripted and acted out in a way that non-X Files fans can enjoy, the film is very satisfying in that it holds no loose ends when the film is over. Though its set out, plotted, and arranged like a normal X Files episode, the Hollywood influences only ensure some lovely nasty alien props, along with great location in the antartic and more.Only part that questioned me... (Spoiler) Mulder travels to the Antartic/Pole with the knowledge he has to give Scully a viral antidote in a certain period of time. Yet, with only a caterpillar-tracked vehicle, he s clearly scaled miles of snow in the amazingly short time he s got, considering he was back in the U.S moments before! I guess that s why they call this Hollywood Timing ...Don t miss this if you re an X Files fan, or indeed if you just like little green men!
A FANTASTIC MOVE TO THE BIG SCREEN - I always laugh at those that say this film is nothing more than a television episode transferred to the big screen. I always feel like going yes, you are right. Why? Well, the television show was always like a mini feature film, the production style and the moody photography making it more of a cinematic experience than a televisual one which is why I think this big screen version works so well. Chris Carter writes the script, it s directed by Rob Bowman, scored by Mark Snow, edited by Stephen Mark and the visual effects are handled by Mat Beck, the television team, and you know what, that cinematic style that the television show did so well transfers to the big screen superbly. This is The X Files:The Movie and boy is it good. Moving the production from moody Vancouver to sunny Los Angeles is a good move. While the film retains that dark moody look (just take a look at the fantastic scene where the Syndicate meets) we also get the look of a Summer blockbuster (which this film was).Essentially The X Files:Fight The Future is a continuation of the mythology (story arc) begun in the television series where Mulder and Scully strive to stop the colonization of Earth by a benevolent force of extra terrestrials being conducted by a shadowy government known as the Syndicate (which appears to be a global affair, not just an American one if the film is anything to go by). Not strained by the budget or time constraints of a television show budget, here Carter and Bowman get to have more fun and place in sequences that would never have been possible on television. We get the fantastically staged, if frighteningly realistic, bombing at the start, the thrilling helicopter chase, the secret under Antarctica and it s destruction at the rising of an alien ship. The mythology, which was essentially Mulder s quest, the forefront and spine of the television series, which was always a personal quest, now becomes an epic struggle, no longer a personal one, even though, going by the special edition version here, still has links to Mulder s attempts to discover what happened to his sister. All of a sudden the Syndicate is a world wide affair, the FBI stretches beyond Skinner and the Syndicate s nefarious schemes reach out beyond rail road cars and hospitals in middle America. This is a fantastic big screen transformation if you ask me.Carter s script is as good as expected and the direction of Bowman is, like on the shown, assured. The best director on the series, his episodes were always the most cinematic visually and he doesn t disappoint here. Then there s the performances from the main and supporting cast. Duchovny and Anderson are superb as always, especially Anderson as Scully faces tough choices over her career, while the supporting cast is made up of new and familiar faces. Cigarette Smoking Man and Skinner are present, but John Neville as the Well Manicured Man steals the honors as the best of the supporting cast from the show as the character once and for all lays it all on the line and shows us that he was a good guy all along, while fine support also comes from Martin Landau as Kurtzwiel, Mulder s informant who quickly gets the Deep Throat/X treatment. Forever tempted away from casting big names on the show, doing it here works, not just because it s a movie, but because like Jodie Foster, Mimi Rogers, Michael McKean and Bruce Campbell, Martin Landau really fits the role here and it doesn t feel like a star cameo for the sake of it.The X Files works so well on the big screen and we really shouldn t be surprised, but it s been five years since this film and I hope that that summer in 1998 will not be the only time I and other X Philes will be able to see it where it so clearly belongs.
Stand Alone - I used to wacth xfiles when it first came out but lost track of it around season 3. A fluke chance led me to purchase this film and wasn t really dissapionted! The film is fairly solid and of course the audience gets told just what did happen to Spookies sister. Some of the filming is great but it is let down in other areas, the aliens looked good but lacked the feel of the creatures from alien, they just looked a little to cartoony.Definitely a sci-fi film must have, butnot quite good enough to stand toe to toe with the greats, but seems to fit in with feel of the series!
to complete season 5 - season 5 is somehow too short for me, apart from redux-like myth episodes, the lone epis are not that exciting, a bit of filler really. however, when you see this, you are gonna like season 5, the movie maker did a good job in that at a right time, chose the right form, to hit two target with one stone, the backgrounds of two characters are revealed through conversation in the hearing, this is the one of the few ways to acheive this in movies, and it suits perfectly the temporal story line right after the burning of the office, so, for both movie audiences and tv audience, this is a allound job. the only pity is, the movie is too important for the conitnuation of season 7, without seeing the movie, it s hard to feel comfortable in season 7u first epi.