i want to believe

[sab]

Saw XF: IWTB with rossetti and thassalia last night, midnight show at the Grove. It was a packed theater with a good X-Filesy crowd too.





Saying that I thought it was a godawful movie would be misleading only as far as it would imply I thought it counted as a movie. I think we landed on "sub-par non-Sweeps episode of CSI" last night, and I would go so far as to say it was a godawful one of those.

Just, holy crap, what a waste of time and space and money and story. Surprise!Callum was the best bit, and the nice throwaway fanservice of Skinner cradling Mulder, but, just. I suppose somewhere in there was maybe a story about evil transgendered people and their sins against biology, and I'd get all haughty about that except that I just don't care. And was unable to really deduce enough plot to come up with a good argument. I was also probably supposed to enjoy the scruffy bed kiss near the beginning, and the "that's why I fell in love with you" near the end, and I'll tell you, I enjoyed both of those things on their own, but it's not like they were contextualized or that any character or relationship issues were addressed or observed.

Also there was something with Scully either playing god or not playing god by working at a crazy Catholic hospital and using revolutionary stem-cell research, but I have no idea what was going on with that either. I mean. I followed it, mostly. I just didn't care.

I Want To Believe makes Fight The Future look like an emotional roller-coaster, rich with conspiracy and conflict and heroism and fear! which is embarrassing in and of itself.

Ten years it took, to make this, and I swear I could have made this in my bathtub with oatmeal and dish soap.

For what it's worth, the MSR arc paid off just as well, such as it is, as anything else did. Rather, the movie was just exactly as shippery as it was compelling, exciting, scary, or interesting.

I'm willing to leave myself the loophole to rewatch this... thing that's not a movie, somewhere down the line, and revise my opinion on it.

The credits came on and the midnight theater audience all went, "what? What?" out loud.

Comments

[hegemony.livejournal.com]

The credits came on and the midnight theater audience all went, "what? What?" out loud.

That's the best review of any movie I think I've ever read.

[twentyfivepast.livejournal.com]

BASICALLY, YES. What the fuck was that?

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I feel bad even saying bad things, because mostly it seems to be making people feel happy and warm and fuzzy and I want to encourage that. But... well, I'm at least confident that even if you weren't cracked out on cold medicine, we were seeing the same movie, and it does not appear to be the movie everyone else is seeing!

[rossetti.livejournal.com]

Wait, seriously? Now I feel I should read your fl, it seems the people I saw it with are the people on my fl who have seen it, and that's it.

[sloganeer.livejournal.com]

The credits were CRAZY. What was that?

I have to write an actual post, but I feel like I can't until I explain my entire fannish history in order to put my reaction into some kind of context.

[flouritephoenix.livejournal.com]

Re: the credits...they were...in a ship. Get it? They were shippers. Hahahahaha yeah.

[girlboymusic.livejournal.com]

I just watched it with a friend and yes, basically, we agreed that it was simply an XF episode, and a boring one at that. One of the ones we only ever half-watched, and couldn't remember when people mentioned the title.

But: I expected that. Because the majority of the press focused on Mulder/Scully and David/Gillian and "it's been TEN YEARS," I expected it to be self-indulgent, a wink-wink-nudge-nudge acknowledgement trip down memory lane. Hey, remember sunflower seeds? Hey, remember Skinner? Hey, remember the picture of Clinton? Hey, remember the THEME SONG? So I wasn't disappointed. I wanted to snuggle down with my old friends Mulder and Scully and pretend it was a Sunday night in ninth grade again, and that's exactly what I did.

Also: of course the gays did it.

[noelleleithe.livejournal.com]

Maybe if you went in expecting big things, you might feel like this about it. I didn't, so I don't. It was a typical MOTW episode, just longer and with more shippy M&S bits. It was a small-scale film, not an epic. Do I care? Not one bit. It was M&S together again, it was fun, and it didn't character assassinate anyone I love. :)

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

I made A. go alone tonight (well, with a friend) to vet for both scary-jump-out parts (I hate being startled and there were a few scares in FtF) and for romance parts, because even the little bits we got in S8 were too much for me (turned out I liked my UST to stay U). He has much lower standards than me, mostly being a MotW/conspiracy fan and not as invested in the characters, and he just kind of stalked in the house and said "not good" and then told me about the part with the dog-head-grafting and I laughed a lot.

I probably won't wait until the DVD comes out, so it might be downloaded in the near future when I have the heart.

[zauberer-sirin.livejournal.com]

all my friends have seen it already and told me just how bad it is. they also tell me Mulder is kind of adorable in it, and for me Mulder is the reason I became a fan in the first place so... I DON'T KNOW. I don't want to watch a horrible not-movie and have it associated with my favourite show.

but- but- but! I want Mulder.

[scrubschick.livejournal.com]

Ten years it took, to make this, and I swear I could have made this in my bathtub with oatmeal and dish soap. *laughs so hard she cries* Damn, I wish I'd said that!

When I heard CC was writing and directing, I knew it would not be the movie I wanted to see and I suspected it would be the last nail in the coffin for the XF franchise. Bits were good, there wasn't enough humor, and it brought a whole new meaning to 'plot what plot.'

That said, I liked Mulder and Scully and felt the characters hadn't been buggered. Everyone else was completely underdeveloped. Time for fanfic to correct the mistakes. Again. *sigh*

[furies.livejournal.com]

1. scully is now not only working with live people, she's a neurosurgeon? amazing how much can happen in six years . . .

2. ummm, everyone knows that ketamine (known as K as a street drug) is a horse drug, right? and that animal drugs are used all the time on humans? WHY WAS IT SO PUZZLING TO SEE ANIMAL TRANQS IN HUMANS??

3. did you stay to see the stupid waving in the boat? lame.

4. also: skinner has HAIR.

5. the plot was so. so. dumb.

6. becca and i watched s1, s2, and s4 favorites after, to cleanse ourselves.

it's not that i hated it, or that it was even truly horrible, it's just that it was BORING.

the end.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Just got back from it. Man, I wish I'd read your review first—I think you're spot-on; it was awful.

I have nothing else to say. I think I'm going to just sit here and sigh heavily.