SPOILER: Review of IWTB

[Guest Laurent.]

Some of you may have already checked

X-Files Ultimate's news page. There is a short review sent to them by a critic shortly after he left the theater after the first screening of the new movie...

I am disappointed beyond words. Some people who claim to have read major spoilers about the plot are not surprised by the comments... I'm a bit reluctant to read the next critics. Maybe I should just wait for the movie to come out. At least I'm not tempted to go read the spoilers... not yet.

[Orodromeus]

For those who speak French here:

https://www.filmsactu.com/critique-cine-the...ration-3354.htm (quite spoilerish; note:

13/20

)

https://cinema.aliceadsl.fr/film/default.as...lmid=FI00018305 (non-spoiler; note:

1/5

)

...

[Guest Laurent.]

Ouch.

[Blackoil]

I don't care what critics say, most of them are arrogant. :)

[ethsnafu]

As I am an uncultured klutz I cannot read the French article and would appreciate if anyone has a little time could they share a brief overview of it in English? I saw Laran's ouch and have become intrigued.

I must say I wholeheartedly agree with Blackoil. The only review that means anything is your own. What you think when you leave the theatre crammed full of pepsi and popcorn is all that truly matters. Don't get downhearted guys we will soon have the chance to give this movie the only review that matters, our own.

Best wishes,

Eth

[Guest Laurent.]

I will only translate the non-spoiler one (I don't want to read the other):

What is left of our loves?

Despite the two last awful seasons of The X-Files, an otherwise avant-gardist series, the fan could still hope for a strong return of the mythical Mulder and Scully. At least if their creator, Chris Carter, would be able to bring them back in a dark and ambiguous world like the one from the series' splendor years. No suspense; it is not the case. If the joy of seeing David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson is there in the first scenes, the effect is ephemeral. First because Carter drench his film in a sentimentalism close to seasons 8 and 9, which does not fit with the torturous and solitary souls that are Mulder's and Scully's. THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE tries to repeat the success of legendary episodes like "Beyond the Sea" and "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" by bringing to the front a strange psychic character. But without any atmosphere, the film has nothing to shock. The viewer follows the plot without passion, with a false rhythm and unoriginal twists, before being irritated by effects overused in the series: violins for emotion, epileptic editing/montage for the action, melodramatic talks, no subtility... The series has in its first six seasons dozens of 42 minutes episodes richer and denser than these two banal hours of cinema. With this movie, Mulder and Scully are back, but certainly not THE X-FILES.

[Orodromeus]

Summary of the main points of the other review (I've trimmed the spoiler bits):

- Film really focused around the characters flirting with investigative cinema, lacking of ambition. Good nevertheless.

- With a much more mature directing, it feels more like a film made for the cinema than the first movie (which was like a gift for geeks)

- Basic thriller, very well written, both in its characters and its themes: personal reconstruction, faith, religion, introspection -- which justify the title "IWTB"

- Focuses so much on these moral themes that Carter delivers something more like a direct-to-DVD feature rather than a cinema feature. Completely made for newcomers and not for fans.

- Overall good surprise since our expectations were low. The real question is if this is really the X-Files and if a cinema release was necessary.

13/20

Me: So more positive than the first, but definitively not stellar. Actually it sounds more like Millennium in its themes.

[Guest Laurent.]

POST REMOVED; Oro beat me to it.

[Guest Laurent.]

- With a much more mature directing, it feels more like a film made for the cinema than the first movie (which was like a gift for geeks)

Hope Rob Bowman does not read that. IWTB is Carter's big-screen directorial debut and Bowman even had a lot more experience as a tv show director before directing FTF.I'm very glad to hear CC did well. Thank you a lot for the spoiler-less summary Oro!!

[Orodromeus]

Hope Rob Bowman does not read that. IWTB is Carter's big-screen directorial debut and Bowman even had a lot more experience as a tv show director before directing FTF.I'm very glad to hear CC did well. Thank you a lot for the spoiler-less summary Oro!!

It's not clear whether it's about the directing per se or the overall feel (writing+cinematography). I was referring to this bit:

Surprenant, donc, de constater à quel point Chris Carter privilégie la maturité de son œuvre et l'évolution vers le réalisme un brin défaitiste de son univers après une attente des plus interminables, à des années lumières du cadeau de geeks qu'était le premier opus. Le côté film segment est ici banni [...] c'est du cinéma dans son propos

New review from a site I follow often (French as well... there was a screening for press people this morning by the way, that's the reason for this avalanche):

https://www.dvdrama.com/news-28011-cine-x-f...egeneration.php

Coming soon with a summary.