The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

Scully's a surgeon specializing in rare brain conditions, with a particularly tough case on her hands. Mulder's no longer in the FBI, either; he's hiding at Scully's house, still technically preferred on charges by his longtime employer, yet still unable to let go of what he almost brought to light during The X-Files' 10-year run. And none of that is necessary to know to dive into the plot of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Chris Carter's hush-hush revival of one of the 1990s most successful and invigorating TV dramas.

What drags the star-crossed ex-agents back into the realm of the bizarre is a current case officer (Amanda Peet) who is leading a team looking for another agent believed to have been abducted. Complicating matters -- and the reason for getting Mulder involved again, especially -- is the presence of a defrocked priest (Billy Connolly) who swears he has visions related to the kidnapping. His success rate for predictions is maddeningly (but not surprisingly) inconsistent, and the FBI wants help deciphering whether the guy's a put-on and if not, how best to make use of his second sight. Oh, the former cleric happens to be a convicted pedophile, which adds a whole other layer of complication to matters.

What drives the agent's disappearance (among other vanishings) has a striking parallel to Scully's personal and professional situation, adding a plot bridge whose dimensions only become clearer with time. And while Carter and his team have never been shy about taking their time in telling a story, there are some definite drags in I Want to Believe that cause the story's momentum to stumble in the snow at more than one point.

Nevertheless, it's to the credit of Carter and co-writer/longtime collaborator Frank Spotnitz that they've managed to fashion an intelligent story that tackles a particularly tough end-of-life issue and doesn't require any grounding in the show's mythos to get into. That said, fans will find this both a fun stretch of the meta-story arc where the Mulder-Scully relationship is concerned, although they might be a tad disappointed that no effort was made to move the meta-story arc further down the pike. Perhaps that's too much to ask of a movie whose sole cinematic predecessor dates back to the late 1990s and was grounded in the show's great paranoid narrative.

So, does it work on the big screen the second time around? Or is The X-Files franchise fated to be a small-screen classic that just never finds its way after making the jump? Based on I Want to Believe, the second X-Files film (10 years after the first), I'm leaning toward a successful film franchise -- assuming that's the direction Chris Carter and the rest of the X-Files creative team decide to take it. And while I Want to Believe is a worthy heir to the name, it would be good to see the next film (pretty please!) offer a sop or two to the fans -- and a bit more AD Skinner, too, thanks.