With a title like I WANT TO BELIEVE, film critics will have a field day with comments like I want to believe that this film works or I want to believe that this new X Files movie is actually believable.  Especially when the movie is quite awful!  (The film now registers less 50% on the T-meter at the Rotten Tomatoes website.)

The X FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE, the second X-Files film re-unites David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as agents Mulder and Scully respectively with X Files creator director Chris Carter.  One need not wonder the reason the 3 are back as each has not got a hit in the past few years.  When the film begins, Mulder is in recluse and Scully is a surgeon.  They solve the mystery of a missing agent with the help of a priest (Billy Connolly).  The premise of the series is unexplainable (not necessary supernatural) cases in the FBI files that would interest viewers with a leaning toward mystery.  As the film goes, the mystery is difficult to solve till the very end.

But for the wrong reasons!  The story is only offered in small pieces which make the film confusing rather than puzzling.  The awful editing does not help.  The start has choppy editing but the on foot chase in the middle of the film is not only discontinuous (trucks appearing and then disappearing within the next scene) but inter-cut by an investigation which diminishes the excitement of the pursuit.  The cinematography of the wintry scenes is at least impressive.

For a movie, I WANT TO BELIEVE delves into darker areas of pedophilia and organ transplants – topics not suitable for television.  The violence and gore present indicate the filmmakers’ nod towards the trend of recent horror successes as SAW and HOSTEL.  Though the filmmakers claim that this film is stand alone and that viewers need not be familiar with the X Files series, certain events of the past (Were Mulder and Scully married before or just lovers?  Or did they lose a child together?) are never explained.

One knows something is wrong when a chase segment derives no excitement and the viewer is straining his or her eyes trying to figure what is happening in the dark.  The end result of X FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a muddled puzzle that turns out to be mostly boring.  I honestly wanted to believe ……