i think that saying that the x - files is one of this summer 's most anticipated films is safe .
for five years , " the x - files " television show has developed a dedicated fan culture , whose rabid devotion to the series rivals that of " star trek " fans .
the premise of both the movie and the television series is two fbi agents who investigate the paranormal ; fox mulder ( david duchovny ) is the avid believer whose quest to find the truth about extraterrestrial life borders on the paranoid , and dana scully ( gillian anderson ) is the scientific skeptic trying to find a rational explanation to mulder 's flights of fancy .
outlining the plot of the x - files movie is virtually impossible , since to be general would result in confusion , yet to be specific would give too much away .
nevertheless , i will try .
"
the black ooze , " and extraterrestrial ,
virus - like substance is threatening earth .
a " shadow government " is aware of this , but tries to cover - up the alien existence .
mulder and scully know
" the truth is out there , " and so try to expose both the invasion and the cover - up .
there are three central questions i have heard asked about this movie : 1 .
will those who do n't watch the series be able to understand the movie ?
yes .
isolated as an individual text , the x - files can stand alone .
they have given enough background for anyone , familiar with the show or not , to understand the movie .
although some of the secondary characters ' histories may confuse the uninitiated , those characters are not essential to the film .
this is a major problem : they trot out token secondary characters from the series out for an appearance and then disappear just as quickly .
why bring superintendent skinner into the picture in the first place , and then have him sat silently on an fbi internal affairs committee ?
why bring in " the lone gunmen , " three computer geek conspiracy theorists , for an even briefer appearance ?
these characters are recurrent on the series , and their appearance in the film was met with whoops from the audience ( suggesting their popularity among fans - actually most of the audience could pass for " the lone gunmen " ) .
still , then they vanish just as quickly .
2 .
the television show never gives us any answers .
will the movie actually explain some things ?
yes .
in the x - files we get a fairly complete history of " the black ooze , " what it is and what it wants .
we finally get some understanding of the motivations behind the " shadow government .
"
there are even some subtle tie - ins with contemporary ufo - ology , including the " greys " and the roswell crash of 1947 .
3 . is the movie any good ?
no .
the x - files is a dreadful movie and shows some fundamental problems with writer / creator chris carter 's talents and the relationship between cinema and television .
first off , the screenplay by series creator chris carter is sloppy and cliched .
after approximately forty - five minutes ( the length of a television episode minus the commercials ) , the pace drops to a snail 's crawl .
not long after that point , when carter attempts to answer some questions we have had about the series , we wish he had not .
the explanations are so trite and ridiculous
that one would have preferred it had carter not explained quite so much .
i am willing to suspend my disbelief a fair bit , but the absurdity carter wants me to swallow was just too much .
breaking the suspension of disbelief destroys the movie - and listening to other fans leave the cinema , maybe the series too .
the explanations are not only absurd , they are tired and unoriginal .
the extraterrestrials breed and gestate like those from the alien series , and their craft looks like a leftover set piece from independence day .
note that the alien movies , id4 , and the x - files are all from 20thcentury fox - a studio that is beginning to cannibalize itself i think .
the x - files is noteworthy for being the only movie based on a television series to be produced while the series was still running .
in comparing the movie and television series certain aspects of the respective media emerge .
the avoidance of the series to answer the questions it raised annoyed and frustrated many people .
however , i rather liked that about the series .
television allows you to impose as much , or as little , meaning on a show as you want .
it is the proverbial " blank screen " which we project our minds on .
meaning on television is open and ambiguous ; it is the nature of the medium .
cinema , on the other hand , is the opposite .
it projects onto us the filmmakers mind .
we can , in some films , fill the textual gaps ourselves , but that almost never happens in an american film .
meaning , in cinema , needs to be self - contained and determined .
so , when the x - files made that jump from small to big screen , carter needed to take into consideration the differences in the medium as well .
he did not .
by making explicit , what the television show left implicit , carter reveals the limits of his creativity and skill .
when they say that " fans " make a tv show , it is not far from the truth .
on television , fan culture must impose its meanings on the text because there is nothing there .
how true that is when we see the " explicit " x - files - there is nothing there .
the following was printed in the st .
john 's express , st .
john 's , newfoundland , canada .
all views are the authors , but copyright is held by robinson - blackmore , 1998 . ; movie review by mikel j .
koven .
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