X-Files Movie: do you believe?

This month on July 25th is the new X-Files Movie "X-Files:I want to believe" which is the second X-Files movie to date (the first was X-Files: Fight for the future). I can't wait!

As a side note, while hanging out with a friend in NYC this last weekend, we got on the topic of both being original X-Files (meaning the first eight seasons) fans and our mutual interest in checking out the new coming movie. While I have heard that the movie takes the X-File in some new directions, it is (possibly) the first of a set of X-Files movies that continue the storyline into the direction that the franchise always wanted to go.

I guess the original plan was to segwey the TV Show into a format most suitable on the silverscreen. According to Fox Mulder (eheem... actor David Duchovny) this was an early desire for the show and I guess they are hoping that hitting the reset button with this film will be the trial run to kickstart X-Files new life in cinema. By trial run, I mean that the director Chris Carter (same Chris Carter that gave us the TV show) was given only $35 million to make this movie. When you compare that to flops like "Meet Dave" that had a production budget of $60 million (and only grossed $9 million) you can see that Fox Film Studios is taking a chance on rebooting the X-Files franchise, but not a huge risk financially speaking.

This is where I come in. So, in preparation for the movie I went out and bought the DVD set "X-Files: Revelations" which is supposed to be a crash course in relevant X-File episodes that play (to some degree) into the plot of the new movie. While the movie is supposed to be a stand-alone that anyone could enjoy without knowing a ton about the X-Files backstory, if you know anything about the coming films plot then you see shadows of the plot in these eight episodes included on the DVD (I am only on the second episode and I can see it... and am getting excited.) Ironically, just as it was raining in the first episode on the DVD set, it started raining outside my apartment... which just made getting back into the X-Files mode even more fun!

Without giving much of a spoiler, here are three things you can expect from the movie:

1. sci-fi alien crap we all love
2. the characters we all love (minus the ones who died, of course)
3. detective / investigation plot that includes FBI and serial killer stuff

So, if you like TV shows like X-Files and CSI and Law and Order and enjoy movies like... well... X-Files, and Silence of the Lambs, etc, then this should be fun. But think of it more like a two hour cinematic TV show on a TV show budget rather than expecting blockbuster budgets filled with ceasure-causing special effects. So, if we go and fork over the bucks for the movie, then as history proves, studios will hand over bigger budgets for larger stories and productions for the next X-Files films.