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Somewhat out-of-the-blue, the X-Files have returned with a feature length film. It has nothing to do with the major plots of the tv show or the previous movie, and jumps straight in with the characters where they are in their current lives. Agent Scully is now a practicing doctor and Mulder.. somehow manages to survive without really working, I guess. Mulder gets invited by the FBI to help investigate a case, and his one condition is that Scully come along. The case involves a missing agent whose life is apparently in danger, and the only clues the FBI have are body parts located by a an ex-priest who seems to have visions that tell him facts about the case.

Now that several years have passed, Mulder is bitter against the FBI for their treatment of him, but is ever a (want-to) believer. Scully struggles with issues of religion, especially because the priest is a former pedophile, and one of her young patients is battling a disease with no cure. These emotions and conversations feel heavy and forced, but mostly because the movie tries to pack in too many of them in an hour and forty-five minutes. The science vs. religion vs. paranormal aspect of the X-Files tv show was always an interesting one, but it was allowed to unfold slowly. Here, it's packed in, along with many details that feel like they are inserted into the movie more for a point than to better the story.

The worst of these moments is near the beginning of the film, when Mulder and Scully are waiting outside a conference room and are looking at photos on the wall. One is of George W. Bush, and as they look at it, the X-Files theme song whistle plays. It's cheesy and out of place in an otherwise serious movie. But beyond that, the fact that the suspect they are chasing is legally married to a man, Scully's emphasis on stem cell work with her patient, and a few other moments in the film don't feel characteristic to the show and its nonpartisan feel.

This movie also suffers from a sometimes sloppy script. I noticed that my sister and I kept laughing a certain scenes that just didn't ring at all true to real life. Scully is supposed to be a primary doctor for her patient, but when she orders the stem cell treatment on her patient, she is actually in the operating room, injecting stuff straight into her patient's brain. Wow. I wish my primary care physician were that talented.

Cinematically speaking, I didn't really expect there to be anything very amazing about a tv show-to-big screen movie. That was pretty much the case. It's shot like a tv show, and the music feels like tv show music. Basically, it's like watching a very long episode.

Those little items are my main complaints about the movie. Otherwise, it does keep one interested and definitely has the weird-factor that we all came to know and love in the tv show. Although it's heavy, I do like how the different characters change their minds about the priest's legitimacy as a medium of sorts, and how various kinds of belief play into that.

It is a little weird to see Mulder and Scully as a sort-of couple, but, in a way, it works. I like how it leaves off in the end.

I'm not quite sure this was a necessary movie, and I don't think I should have paid full price for it, but I don't think it's terrible either. If you're interested, the cheap theater or a movie rental would suffice. It was nice to spend time with these characters again. I just wish they had been given a slightly better production that would have featured them better.