Last night I sat down and watched the new X-Files movie, the one that was in theaters for all of a week this summer before quickly disappearing from everyone's radar. I was sorely disappointed, massively disappointed, hugely disappointed. I completely understand why it didn't do that well and why the reviews weren't great either.
I do think, however, that the film was great in one respect — it allowed me to really and truly enjoy last night's episode of Fringe. No, seriously, as I've said repeatedly, the two shows are inextricably linked together, and Fringe, for its entire brief run, has seemed like a poor clone of The X-Files. After seeing the second X-Files movie though, Fringe all of the sudden begins to look like what the summer's reboot of the original franchise could have been.
I think one of the main reasons that I stick with Fringe from week to week is one of the same reasons why I stuck with The X-Files back in the day — the long-term, crazy conspiracy stuff. On both shows those elements are so completely over the top and yet dealt with in such a serious manner that they are shockingly fun. Not only are the conspiracy elements intriguing, but they're funny — or, at the very least, the way the characters handle the situations are funny. This second X-Files movie didn't have that; it wasn't over-arching conspiracy-based, and unless I missed him, the Cancer Man (I'll always call him that and not the Cigarette Smoking Man) didn't even make an appearance. How do you try and reboot a franchise that thrived on its over-arching alien conspiracy stuff without doing alien conspiracy stuff?
The movie actually felt like some of the worst Star Trek movies, you know, the ones that ought to have just been a regular old episode (not even a double-episode), not a movie. The little things we were supposed to find funny with this new movie fell completely flat. Case in point: The X-Files theme playing when Mulder and Scully saw Bush's picture on the wall at the FBI office. I gather that the implication was that Bush's becoming President had some conspiracy elements behind it, but who cares? Why make that joke, what was the sense in it? It wasn't cute and it certainly wasn't clever. It strove to be both, but it failed… dismally.
Article comments
1 - Luke
You can not be serious. How on earth can you compare a mediocre show (Fringe) to the holy juggernaut and the greatest TV show in the world (The X files)
2 - lynne3
comparing fringe to the x files movie makes fringe look better, but if you compare it to the TV episodes of the x files you are far from the truth. the x files beats fringe any day!
3 - Phillip Winn
I'm sorry, Josh; I just don't buy it. I guess I would have to watch Fringe again to make a similar comparison, and I just don't want to. Life's too short, and Fringe sucks too much.
Then again, I actually liked the recent The X-Files movie. :-)
4 - ruzel
What is awesome about Fringe as compared to X-files is that they bother to explore the questions of why and how. X-files should have done that. We all faithfully watched for years and then... nothing. Here Fringe is in its first season and already the writers have given us so much to go on and be paranoid about--fantastic for this kind of show. It's what I used to love about X-files, but that the writers of the show ultimately failed at. Just given the green, green, green red lights and the "observer," it's very clear that the Fringe writers have a plan. And they are going to leak it out to us inch by inch. Awesome, I saw. I wish Chris Carter had seen the light--namely, an answer to the viewers who hang on to the edge of those cliffhangers every week.
5 - JThom
The new x-files movie deliberately avoided the conspiracy/alien elements. There are talks that if the DVD sells well enough (out a week before the Dark Knight this time) the third movie will deal with these themes. I look forward to this if it does happen. But at the same time, I can appreciate wanting to make a movie a one-off since there is no guarantee of sequels. The X-Files does not have the luxury of the batman or spiderman or star wars franchises and cannot make one movie with knowledge that there will be a trilogy to complete the story.
6 - BlissBoo
Let's not forget...Cancer Man is DEAD.