The truth is out there, and a lot of people aren’t liking it.
Mulder and Scully are back in the new X-Files 2 movie that’s currently in production. Now, sadly, I became an X-Files fan (an X-Phile, if you will) after the show was already into its decline. I’ve watched a relatively few number of episodes, and almost all of that has been in reruns or on DVD. I’d love to catch up on the entire series sometime, but unless somebody randomly donates the complete set to the KnightOwl X-Files Education Fund, it’s probably not happening any time soon.
The series was really well-written, with the right amount of creepy and funny spread throughout each episode, and as far as I’m concerned was one of the first shows to feature overarching plot threads weaving throughout the entire series (not exactly along the same lines as today’s serialized dramas like Lost, 24, or even Alias, but pretty groundbreaking, I think, for its time). If not one of the first, at least one of the first to do it really well. The conspiracy theories still have everyone talking, though given the years that have gone by without any real answers, a lot of people are starting to think that there really aren’t any answers and (again, unlike Lost) the writers were never really going anywhere after all — no answers in mind or planned, but rather just making things up as they went along.
That said, it’s been six years since the series wrapped up. It’s been ten years since the first X-Files movie. You would think that in that amount of time they could have put something coherent and plausible together to tie it all together, wouldn’t you? Apparently not. Recent information from the filmmakers of the new movie indicates that all of the alien/conspiracy theory/government cover-up subplots that made the show so popular won’t be popping up in X-Files 2. Chris Carter, series creator and current film director, said that “We want a stand-alone movie, not a mythology conspiracy one.”
My personal opinion is that the idea seems like a good one if they’re looking to spin off a new series or something. However, given what X-Files has typically been known for, this seems like it’s not giving fans anything they’re actually asking for. It’s just dragging up the characters to make some more money off name recognition rather than furthering the already-established story.
Any other X-Files fans out there? What do you think?
More info here: USA Today, Film School Rejects
Boo! If you, like me, have seen the way the ninth and final season of the show ends, this movie will have to be a flashback or an extreme flashforward to not deal with the overarching alien mythology / conspiracy plots. While I thoroughly enjoyed all of the series’ standalone episodes (even the really campy and quirky ones), it was the “Conspiracy Episodes” as I’ve come to call them, that really got me hooked and gave me reason to actually want to watch nine seasons worth of the show.