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veronica_richOK, this is how you go out on a high note. Giving Chris Carter a few years off to regroup and think obviously paid off in a way I couldn't have expected, frankly.
My sister went last night and said she liked it, but described the movie as "somebody wrote a good, regular movie, and then just dropped the X-Files characters and a few 'inside' things into it." I'd say that's as good a starting summation as any. Do not go to this movie expecting alien abductions, cigarette-smoking X men, fluke worm men (though there are a couple of weird-ass things), or even "monster of the week" necessarily. I went expecting nothing but Mulder and Scully and was satisfied.
Our favorite duo is together as a couple, presumably living together, but it's handled as part of their lives, not A Grand Shippy Achievement. (I was always a NoRoMo, but qualified that by saying as long as I didn't have to see them *getting* together, I didn't mind if they were portrayed as together later on.) There is a slight "jealous" element by introducing younger FBI agent Whitney (Amanda Peet), but she's killed off about halfway through - and as much as she seems to be interested in Mulder, you never get a feeling that Scully's jealous, or that he likes Whitney in return. It's just a case of a guy running across a woman who finds him attractive, and largely ignoring it in favor of work.
There are small callbacks to the series - pencils in the ceilng, "I Want to Believe" poster, mentions of previous cases, Skinner(!!) for a few minutes - even names of producers, writers, and directors in Mulder's cell phone address book. *G* But by and large, there's only one supernatural element to the movie and it's fairly minor in scope. It's basically a detective story, broken up by bits and pieces of Mulder and Scully's relationship being tested by their own personalities.
There's no big action sequence like in the first movie or some of the episodes; in fact, the climax of the action is pretty low-key, to be honest. But there's good dialogue, some interesting ethical questions raised about medicine and research, and the question of how far you should compromise who you are for the sake of another person - or not. There's also the acknowledgement of finality to cases and quests, lives, grudges, and the mutually dark habits these two have gotten themselves into for the past 16 years.
At the end of the movie, the credits roll over ice and snow that eventually changes into sand and surf. At the very end, we see a rowboat with Mulder and Scully dressed in beach wear, relaxing, obviously in tropical climes. Just as the camera above is about to pull off them, the characters look up and wave. It's sort of like the names being signed across the screen at the end of "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country." You knew it was their last movie all together, or at all for some of them, and it was a small way to acknowledge the millions of faithful fans who've stuck by the series for years (some of us from the beginning - Jesus, I was still in college when the X pilot premiered in 1993).
Overall, this movie reminded me of fandom in the sense of a fanfic writer who is very, very popular and has produced a very, very popular series of stories that catches a lot of people's imaginations. They write for years, until they start running out of ideas and sort of just ... peter out. Then, after a long sojourn, they come out of "retirement" for the coda. And instead of a bang and a gasp and a Whedon-style tragic ending, they give you something thoughtful and deep and about the *characters* and not the gimmicks or action. And when it ends, you know it's done, but you're OK with it anyway.
My sister went last night and said she liked it, but described the movie as "somebody wrote a good, regular movie, and then just dropped the X-Files characters and a few 'inside' things into it." I'd say that's as good a starting summation as any. Do not go to this movie expecting alien abductions, cigarette-smoking X men, fluke worm men (though there are a couple of weird-ass things), or even "monster of the week" necessarily. I went expecting nothing but Mulder and Scully and was satisfied.
Our favorite duo is together as a couple, presumably living together, but it's handled as part of their lives, not A Grand Shippy Achievement. (I was always a NoRoMo, but qualified that by saying as long as I didn't have to see them *getting* together, I didn't mind if they were portrayed as together later on.) There is a slight "jealous" element by introducing younger FBI agent Whitney (Amanda Peet), but she's killed off about halfway through - and as much as she seems to be interested in Mulder, you never get a feeling that Scully's jealous, or that he likes Whitney in return. It's just a case of a guy running across a woman who finds him attractive, and largely ignoring it in favor of work.
There are small callbacks to the series - pencils in the ceilng, "I Want to Believe" poster, mentions of previous cases, Skinner(!!) for a few minutes - even names of producers, writers, and directors in Mulder's cell phone address book. *G* But by and large, there's only one supernatural element to the movie and it's fairly minor in scope. It's basically a detective story, broken up by bits and pieces of Mulder and Scully's relationship being tested by their own personalities.
There's no big action sequence like in the first movie or some of the episodes; in fact, the climax of the action is pretty low-key, to be honest. But there's good dialogue, some interesting ethical questions raised about medicine and research, and the question of how far you should compromise who you are for the sake of another person - or not. There's also the acknowledgement of finality to cases and quests, lives, grudges, and the mutually dark habits these two have gotten themselves into for the past 16 years.
At the end of the movie, the credits roll over ice and snow that eventually changes into sand and surf. At the very end, we see a rowboat with Mulder and Scully dressed in beach wear, relaxing, obviously in tropical climes. Just as the camera above is about to pull off them, the characters look up and wave. It's sort of like the names being signed across the screen at the end of "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country." You knew it was their last movie all together, or at all for some of them, and it was a small way to acknowledge the millions of faithful fans who've stuck by the series for years (some of us from the beginning - Jesus, I was still in college when the X pilot premiered in 1993).
Overall, this movie reminded me of fandom in the sense of a fanfic writer who is very, very popular and has produced a very, very popular series of stories that catches a lot of people's imaginations. They write for years, until they start running out of ideas and sort of just ... peter out. Then, after a long sojourn, they come out of "retirement" for the coda. And instead of a bang and a gasp and a Whedon-style tragic ending, they give you something thoughtful and deep and about the *characters* and not the gimmicks or action. And when it ends, you know it's done, but you're OK with it anyway.
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No one else replied to this???
Date: 2008-07-31 03:36 am (UTC)I finally saw it. I was not disappointed in the portrayal of Mulder & Scully's relationship at all. I saw it as a Scully story, as Carter has said the series is actually about Scully, not Mulder, about her journey more than Mulder's. This held true to that and thank goodness she got to rescue him for a change!
HOWEVER, the X-File of the story was so sorely lacking in dots to connect things it made my head spin. I'll have to see it again, especially since I did not stay through the end credits and thanks for spoiling that BTW. But the plot was very poor in comparison to the episodes I find it difficult to believe Carter wrote it! Maybe I was too pre-occupied when I saw it, but I failed to understand what they were doing with the female bodies when that was a man's head. And he was gay, married to the courier guy?? OK. Why should we care and what did that have to do with the plot - terrible plot device.
And I KNEW the connection would be a molestation victim. Although it was gross and freaky, I know this is why it underperformed at the Box office.
But seeing Mulder & Scully in bed together. Now THAT's priceless!
Re: No one else replied to this???
Date: 2008-07-31 04:16 am (UTC)I just liked that it was a low-key movie. I'm sure it could've been better; I wouldn't have minded more "X-Files-y" stuff, either. But I'll be surprised if there's anything else out of this series now; it really felt like The End, a coda, new lives for them. And it's about time, given all they've been through (if they can stick with it).
I read some LJ, while surfing somebody's f-list earlier this week, where it had to be a 13 or 14-year-old girl. She was talking about how the show started before she was born, or at around the same time, and she had *just* gotten into it and seeing episodes now. And was looking for any fanfic sites. GOSSAMER! LOL. (Yes, it's still up and still taking new stories.)