The X-Files

I don't think there are many people out there who would disagree with me when I say that Chris Carter's finest writing was the pilot episode of "The X-Files". There are very few television programmes that nail it in the pilot episode, but "The X-Files" was one of them. And Carter did a good job of the season five finale The End, ending the programme with the agents being beaten again by the cigarette-smoking man's organisation. It seemed appropriate and it was a good way to end the series, but rather sadly, of course, the plan to end the series with a movie was written off as four more seasons were made, slowly flogging that dead horse.

But this is the story of the movie. The first one, that is, that is often mistitled "Fight The Future" because that was the tagline - although that would have been a pretty damn cool title. This was the actual end of the series, and in many ways it was probably a better ending than the somewhat downbeat season five ending - though that was great. Because, at the end of the day, the whole point of the series was that these two FBI agents were determined to stand up against the government, the Syndacite, against anyone who was going to supress the truth. And so at the very end - and you'll forgive me if I skip forward to this - when the cigarette-smoking man gives Strughold the note that reveals the X-Files had been reopened, you think: that is a good ending. That's an ending of hope. And that's appropriate for this series.

And so the movie itself. After I watched and reviewed the new movie, somewhat favourably, a good friend of mine pointed out that it was just a standard episode, and he'd been hoping for something "bigger" and on reflection I'm kind of inclined to agree with him. An X-Files movie should be BIG. It should have big concepts and big ideas and big moments. That was missing from the new movie, and despite the fact that this movie is quagmired in the boring arc that had been set up over the last couple of years, the fact is this movie has BIG moments.

There are some very stupid moments as well. The introduction of the Syndacite's leader is completely pointless, and the appearance by the Lone Gunmen is equally pointless. However, both the cigarette-smoking man and the well-manicured man are well used in this movie, and the death of the latter is actually both surprising and a little disappointing. He was turning into a really interesting character. It's also nice to see the cigarette-smoking man just lingering on the outskirts as opposed to being used as a weapon or all the boring crap that he was doing in the last few seasons. And, of course, Skinner puts in an appearance to just have his presence registered, but it does seem appropriate. So thumbs up for great performances by William B Davis, John Neville and Mitch Pileggi.

There are some fantastic moments between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, and, of course, the two almost kiss which is a moment everyone has been waiting for - but as usual it didn't happen, though it was clear that that was what they intended to do, and so five years of sexual tension was finally climaxed without actually climax. Oh, I kill me.

Happily the torturous dialogue usually associated with a Carter script is kept to a minimum, and the direction is handled, not by a big screen pro, but by one of the X-Files usual directors - Rob Bowman. Bowman, of course, would go on to direct other stuff, but he does a more than competent job in filming this, and the climax of the movie is especially exciting.

In fact, the climax is the BIG moment that we should get. A giant spaceship crashing out of the ice under Antarctica and flying away from Mulder and Scully, who have been trying to outrun the ice collapse, and end up on top of the ship before sliding off onto the ground. It's absolutely spectacular and is preceded by some amazing underground shots of people incubating the aliens.

For an arc story this is pretty bloody good, and for an X-Files movie, this is pretty damn entertaining. It actually works much better than the most recent one, and how great it should have been for the film to end a brilliant television series.

"A-"