Running time: 105 minutes
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet, Xzibit, Mitch Pileggi
Rating 5 out of 10
Ten years after the first X-Files movie (US opening weekend box office $30m) comes a follow-up (which debuted with only $10m in ticket sales). Mulder and Scully have other battles on their hands this time around, namely a caped crusader, the greatest hits of Abba and a solitary robot by the name of Wall-E. Coupled with these threats is the question of whether or not a series that finished over a decade ago can still muster up any serious enthusiasm from viewers. On the evidence presented before us the answer has to be a qualified no. The second X-Files film is a gloomy affair which is unlikely to get fans' juices really flowing. Instead of a spectacular effort based on familiar themes of alien abduction, we are presented with a rather unremarkable serial killer storyline which comes across as an elongated episode of the series crossed with Silence of the Lambs.
Mulder (David Duchovny) is now living in a cabin in the woods with a preposterous beard, on the run from the FBI for unspecified charges. His counterpart, Scully (Gillian Anderson) has resumed a career in the medical world, but it's only a matter of plot expedience before the pair is back on track trying to catch a killer who is responsible for multiple murders.
Part of the brief seems to have been to put the two leads in rooms where they have long conversations together. Unfortunately this soon becomes pretty dull: it may have been an attempt to spark some chemistry between the duo but it comes across as a cost-saving exercise. There are also some muddled paedophilic and religious overtones thrown in for good measure.
Chris Carter, who created the series and wrote over 200 episodes, as well as directing 10 of them, is back behind the camera but fails to bring a real cinematic aspect to the goings-on, unlike Rob Bowman who gave the first film a real sense of style. Watching Anderson and Duchovny in action is a bit like seeing Harrison Ford in this year's Indiana Jones reprisal - highly anticipated but a bit of a let-down. Billy Connolly offers sterling support as a psychotic priest who may or may not be able to help them but all in all this is the 'difficult second film', and strictly for fans only.
Paul Hurley
