Rewind: The X-Files (1998)

With the event series only months away, we take another look at The X-Files movie (1998).

"Why am I always doing the heavy lifting?"

Midway through its television run, Chris Carter and his Fox cohorts delivered a feature length X-Files movie that divided fans while continuing to build upon an already epic mythology. With a rabid viewership and a global base of believers, The X-Files (1998) is a much larger, more focused, character driven study that expands on the ideals of Mulder and Scully while never selling the franchise short. At the time of its release, many X-Philes didn't fully grasp the scope of the film, calling it a mildly lackluster effort that fell short of the series' televised greatness. With the film's consistent replay value, it turns out that Fight The Future is a more telling, premonition like journey into the world of conspiracies and alien life.

Seventeen years later, the hard driving plot points of the movie will hit home with any follower of conspiracy theories and the governmental changes that are taking place right before our eyes. The internet is a virtual playground, chock full of things that happened in the theatrical version of The X-Files. From FEMA as a shadow government to the destruction of government buildings in an attempt to cover up an alien disease all the way to a Bilderberg type group that controls the workings of the world under the protection of side arm carrying men in black, The X-Files is a much smarter movie than most remember. The film has a predictive quality that now seems eerie in its relative comparisons to things we see flung around the internet on a daily basis. Creator, Chris Carter took what was already a growing story and turned out an even bigger vision than we all realized at the time. 

With a great cast of support players and the always formidable David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, the 1998 movie remains one of the better science fiction entries of the last twenty years. From Martin Landau's excellent portrayal as anti-government novelist, Kurtzweil to John Neville's perfect form as The Well-Manicured Man, everything here falls perfectly within the guidelines of the television show, never selling out or creating more unresolved bits for our main characters. If anything, the movie truly sets up the end game for Mulder and Scully, finally giving them a more romantic connection as well as the set up for ultimately knowing the truth about alien existence on Earth. Questions are finally answered and the shadowy figures that inhabit their world at last show some signs of retreat as the duo finally begins to unravel their well devised end game. 

"I think Alex Jones went that way....."

Having seen the movie some twenty odd times, it becomes clearer upon every consecutive viewing. The X-Files (1998) is Chris Carter's love note to his own sci-fi creation. Almost all the continued themes of the show are touched upon while never sliding down that slippery slope into abandonment of character or uneven quality. The movie holds its own with massive set pieces, huge effects sequences, practical creature design, an perfectly rendered score and much larger external shots that up the tension loaded ante for our main protagonists. Seventeen years later, the movie has aged extremely well and continues to grow in scope. 

Score 


-CG

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