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Movies / In Theaters / The X-Files: I Want to Believe
The X-Files: I Want to Believe

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

33%
27%
66%
N/A
N/A
33 %
Reviews Counted: 153 Fresh: 50  Rotten:103 Average Rating: 4.9/10
 
Consensus: The chemistry between leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson do live up to The X-Files' televised legacy, but the roving plot and droning routines make it hard to identify just what we're meant to believe in.
 

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Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for violent and disturbing content and thematic material

Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins

Theatrical Release: Jul 25, 2008 Wide

Box Office: $20,707,728

Synopsis: THE X-FILES(TM): I WANT TO BELIEVE is a new motion picture based on the phenomenally popular, award-winning series The X-Files. Long-anticipated, the film reunites series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson under the direction of series creator Chris Carter, who co-wrote the... THE X-FILES(TM): I WANT TO BELIEVE is a new motion picture based on the phenomenally popular, award-winning series The X-Files. Long-anticipated, the film reunites series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson under the direction of series creator Chris Carter, who co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Spotnitz. In grand The X-Files tradition, the film's storyline is being kept under wraps, known only to top studio brass and the project's principal actors and filmmakers. This much can be revealed: The supernatural thriller is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show's most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the always-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder's pursuits. Months after shooting had wrapped, Carter remained as circumspect about the story as he was during its development and production. "Mulder and Scully are drawn back into the world of the X-Files by a case," is all he'll add about the plot. Perhaps more clues...to something....can be found in the film's title. "I Want to Believe" is a familiar phrase for fans of the series; it was the slogan on a poster that Mulder had hanging in his office at the FBI. "It's a natural title," says Chris Carter. "It's a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith." Carter is much more revealing about his goals for the film. "Simply put, we want to scare the pants off of everyone in the audience," he says. While the scale and scope inherent in the medium of film allowed the filmmakers to take the story and characters where the show couldn't go, Carter says THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE also marks a return to the series' roots, when it was the lone beacon on television for fans of thrillers, supernatural tales, and of horror stories. "The film encompasses all the best things people loved about the show. It's scary, creepy, and has a good mystery. With The X-Files, we often scared people by what they didn't show, and we use that device for the movie." Adds writer-producer Frank Spotnitz: "I think the best part of The X-Files was that it could make you afraid of anything. They didn't tell typical horror stories or adhere to popular genre conventions. And this movie is in that tradition of showing things that you would not see in most scary movies." Unlike the first The X-Files motion picture, released in 1998, Carter and Spotnitz's story for THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE does not require audiences to understand the series' complex mythology that stretched across its nine seasons on the air. "The first movie was kind of an epic episode of the show, but THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a real, stand-alone movie," explains Carter. "If the show hadn't existed, this is a story that still would have found its way to the big screen." --© 20th Century Fox [More]

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Xzibit, Billy Connolly

Director: Chris Carter
Screenwriter: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz
Producer: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz
Composer: Mark Snow

Reviews

 
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Ratings Image
3.0/4

The X-Files 2: I Want to Believe isn't a groundbreaking film by any stretch %u2014 but that it challenges the viewer to consider certain moral imperatives in a season devoted to films revolving around explosions and fart jokes makes it a daring pie

Full Review | comment 1 Comment
08/17/08
Charles Koplinski
Illinois Times
Ratings Image
C+

If you are going to go back to the 90s for source material, it had better come juiced with some modern day action.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/11/08
Bruce Bennett
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)
Ratings Image
2/5

Carter has with The X-Files: I Want to Believe created a mediocre mystery that relies too frequently on coincidence and screenwriting convenience to elicit genuine interest, much less "belief" in its twists and turns.

Full Review | comment 1 Comment
08/08/08
Todd Gilchrist
IGN Movies
Ratings Image
3/4

There's a very strong spiritual underside to The X-Files: I Want to Believe. It gives the story a lot of emotional weight, while also making the creepy stuff that much more disturbing.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/06/08
Mike McGranaghan
Aisle Seat
Ratings Image
N/A

Mulder and Scully are finally back on the case, but after six years apart, they could use a little platitude adjustment.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/02/08
Staci Layne Wilson
Sci-Fi Weekly
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3/5

It's like an especially gloomy episode of the series, stretched a bit too long. And we miss the ad breaks.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
4/5

This is essentially just a bog-standard (if slightly gruesome) thriller, but it's a treat to see Anderson and Duchovny together again and fans of the show won't be disappointed.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
Ratings Image
3/5

The best thrillers dig deeper than this one does, as did the best of The X Files on TV before the series ran out of steam.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Derek Malcolm
This is London
Ratings Image
2/5

There seems to be several scenes missing from the final cut - all the ones that make sense.

Full Review | comment 1 Comment
08/01/08
Chris Laverty
Mansized
Ratings Image
N/A

A plot dug out of the serial-killer deep freeze.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times
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3/5

The movie works as a decent enough thriller, but lacks some of the X factor of the original series.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Sun Online
Ratings Image
N/A

As the famous theme tune is whistled over the opening credits, listen carefully and you may hear the gentle chime of ringing tills as Mulder and Scully return for a pointless cash-in on the TV series.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Daily Mirror [UK]
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1/5

It's lost its X-factor. I wanted to leave.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]
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3/10

This is less a case of The X Files and more like The Y Bother Files. Dull, dull, dull. Avoid.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Heart 106.2
Ratings Image
2/5

This '90s flashback is strictly for the faithful.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Emma Morgan
Total Film
Ratings Image
2/5

Slow, laborious and ponderous without ever earning the right to be, I Want To Believe is a mis-fire that threatens the franchise’s very existence. The only mystery here is, what went wrong?

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Rich Phippen
Sky Movies
Ratings Image
N/A

I Want to Believe is too little, too late: a timid stab at reviving 1990s terror tropes in an age when the fuzzy fear of sci-fi has been replaced by darker and more real stories narrated by al-Qa'eda and CIA Black Ops teams.

Full Review | comment 1 Comment
08/01/08
Sukhdev Sandhu
Daily Telegraph
Ratings Image
2/5

Even the most devout X-Files fan may have their faith tested by this snoozy addition to the franchise, which glides into cinemas with all the urgency of a Dalek with a flat battery.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Catherine Shoard
Guardian [UK]
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2/5

The X-Files isn’t eye-bleedingly terrible. It’s just not very good; it’s an average episode of the TV series stretched to feature length.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/08
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]
Ratings Image
N/A

This is the dullest, most incompetently assembled thriller of the summer... and remember, I've seen The Happening.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/31/08
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly
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Pictures

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Trailers & Clips

  • >
    WonderCon 2008: Interviews
  • >
    NYCC 2008: X-Files 2 Panel Part 1
  • >
    NYCC 2008: X-Files 2 Panel Part 2
  • >
    NYCC 08: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
  • >
    Trailer
  • >
    Trailer #2
  • >
    Gillian Anderson & David Duchovny
  • >
    Chris Carter
  • >
    RT Review Revue Mini - The X-Files: I Want …
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    RT Review Revue - Step Brothers, The X-File…
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News

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RT Interview: David Duchovny on The X-Files, Californication and Directing
posted by Joe Utichi August 01, 2008
It's been six years since we last saw Mulder and Scully together on screen, and with the release of The X-Files: Fight the...


Kim Newman's Guide to The X-Files
posted by Kim Newman July 31, 2008
As I Want to Believe arrives in cinemas, take a look back at the show that started it all; meet the characters and relive...


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Around the Network

• The X-Files: I Want to Believe at Rotten Tomatoes
• The X-Files: I Want to Believe at IGN
• The X-Files: I Want to Believe at AskMen
 
 
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