As someone who was never a fan of this television series I actually liked their first film The X-Files: Fight the Future. The story was not just interesting or exciting; it was also stand alone, cinematic and could never be mistaken for an episode.

Though it was unmistakably The X-Files, the film hit a mark that the television series always seemed to miss, and seeing his first film made me wonder if Chris Carter might be better suited for writing films instead of television. The X-Files: I Want To Believe would be my test for that theory. Was it the X-Files? Most definitely. Does it hold it's own as a film? Just barely.

The biggest difference between 'Fight the Future' and 'I Want To Believe' is that the former was a film; this was an episode. If it had been an X-Files episode it would have been a great episode. As it was a film, it was a pretty good film. The story revolves around a missing F.B.I agent whom the feds cannot seem to locate. Out of desperation they recruit the help of an ex-priest who also happens to be a pedophile (hence the ex) and claims to have psychic powers. The F.B.I does not know whether to fully trust the priests abilities, so Agent Mulder – through a little coaxing by agent Scully – is called back to assist them.

The X-Files was always an ongoing story about belief vs. skepticism. One of the things that shot that concept in the foot for me week after week was the fact that the audience is always let in on the trick. We see the behind the scenes going's on – the Vampires running around town, the abductions taking place, etc – all from an off screen perspective. So from our vantage point there is never any question but that these paranormal phenomenons are actually taking place. What's the point of having a story of belief vs. skepticism if the belief is never questioned and the skeptic is never right?

It seemed to me that Scully was given no other function in the show other than just to be wrong every week. The X-Files: I Want To Believe carries on in this unfortunate tradition. In fact of all the characters and plot points, Scully's is the most out of place here. In the beginning she approaches Mulder and convinces him to come and work on the case, and then proceeds to try and talk him out of it for the rest of the film. She has her usual "You're wrong" banter with him every chance she gets, but with so much inappropriate passion you'd think Mulder would die if he didn't get off the case.

Moreover her skepticism and hostility towards the priest seemed to serve no purpose but to clue her into the fact that he is the real deal. As a matter of fact, there is never really much doubt but that the priest is the real deal, a little maybe, but not much. Certainly not enough to make his purpose in the film very interesting.

What I did find interesting was the fact that the usual X-Files formula was somewhat reversed in this story. The actual case its self (involving various victims being used in illegal experimentation) was in no way supernatural. The supernatural elements of this story were on the case solving side. The psychic ex-priest is in a way an excellent metaphor for the dilemmas that are presented in this film; to keep the faith or to give it up, to believe or not to believe.

As for the case its self, it managed to make me do something that I am almost never able to do in any X-Files story; take the case seriously. The antagonists in this film are not evil or maniacal; they care only about their work, their ambitions, and they treat their victims worse than badly; they treat them like they're nothing. Rather than go for the shock horror treatment we almost always got in the series, I Want To Believe creates an atmosphere of eeriness that actually got my attention. Almost too much so in the last half; in fact that's where it got a little weird for me. It almost turned into a mad slasher film in the end.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe was good enough for me to recommend, but unlike Fight the Future, it suffers from a lot of problems I felt the series always had. I liked the film, but this time that liking comes with absolutely no enthusiasm.