The X-Files: I Want To Believe

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) may want to change his name. He's too easy to find it seems and after The X-Files: I Want To Believe a lot of people are going to be demanding answers from him and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), if not series creator Chris Carter. Whoever ultimately takes the blame for such a prosaic episode in the lives of our favorite Federales, one has to wonder why 20th Century Fox didn't spend more money on the production. The result is low caliber.
I Want To Believe takes its title from a poster that hung over Mulder's desk in the series and in this movie on the wall in his obsession room. There's true chemistry between the leads and even in Amanda Peet who plays a Scully-esque FBI agent. There's some cool humor too, like when Mulder looks on his cell phone contact list and the audience sees the name Gillian. Or a moment at the FBI offices when the camera pans to a photo of George W. Bush on the wall (next to J. Edgar Hoover), holds for a second and then the familiar strains of Mark Snow's X Files theme waft through.
But snippets of familiarity only take the audience so far. I Want To Believe seems rushed, and the case, involving body parts harvesting, never veers into the unexplained so much as the unusual. There's a subplot that deals with religion and the belief system in question is more spiritual than paranormal. Maybe some loose ends are tied up but they're certainly not wrapped in a bow. Only a diehard fan will give this X-File a pass. The beard Mulder wears at the beginning looks pretty fake, like it was previously used in Gods and Generals. Can we please close out the 90s now.