Avoiding the dark places by going nowhere slowly.

After nine phenomenally popular seasons and a “made-for-TV-but-let’s-just-put-it-on-the-big screen-anyway” film, the moment “X-Philes” the world over have been waiting for has arrived. Unfortunately, for them, the latest big screen incarnation is nothing more than a standalone episode, which isn’t even half as energetic or interesting as some of the actual episodes are. It should only appeal to the most diehard fans, but I even doubt it will please fans in the way “Sex and the City” did.

“The X-Files: I Want to Believe” stumbles as it tries to balance fear, doubt, faith and belief while struggling even more to sustain a suspenseful momentum with its lethargic pacing and criss-crossing through various unrelated subplots at the most inappropriate of times. For anyone who believed the film could recapture something other than the palpable chemistry between [Fox] Mulder and [Dana] Scully and the constantly eerie atmosphere present in the TV show, get ready to have your belief system shaken to its core. It’s no wonder the details surrounding the film were kept under such tight wraps.

One has no choice but to wonder why the film, which has nothing to add to the show’s legacy without taking much away either, was ever made, besides the obvious determination to extend the fan base and reiterate that ubiquitous nostalgia, and that question is the only puzzling mystery of the entire film.

Although prior knowledge of the show is not a requirement, it wouldn’t hurt. Both Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) left the FBI a while ago. He spends his days staying out of trouble with the authorities, and she is a physician at a sinister-looking hospital. Both have more or less distanced themselves from what lurks in the shadows, but a timely call from the FBI thrusts them back into the world of the inexplicably supernatural.

A seemingly unsolvable case at the hands of ASAC Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) and agent Mosley Drummy ( Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner) involving a missing Bureau agent and a former paedophile priest (Billy Connolly) who experiences visions of that same woman requires Mulder’s optimism and, often forced, belief in order to line up the eccentric and all too coincidental facts. Ironically, Mulder is pressured into accepting to work on the case by the ever-sceptical Scully, who always found it difficult to believe in paranormal happenings, regardless of how hard she tried. If there was not a logical, reasonable explanation, she could not accept it as true.

Hence the film’s unfortunate yet befitting title. Unfortunate for for providing disbelievers with a punch line for all the justified jokes at the film’s expense and befitting as the fragility of belief and how fast it can turn into doubt, and vice versa, is satisfactorily explored. However, the questions the film poses, about religion, self-belief, trust, obsession, morality and so on are not nearly as interesting as they ought to be, and no sooner do the characters come to finding an answer of sorts before we are whisked away into an utterly different direction.

Mulder and Sully are different, unfocused, and distant and they seem possessed by demons that reek of disheartening amounts of maturity and disorientation. Their romantic interplay, connubial only by the attraction of mutual respect, has never been conventional, and the tension between them roots the otherworldly arguments in tender, intimate romantic drama. The inherent characterisation of Mulder and Scully always was the highpoint of the series, and seeing them waft over the incessant snowscapes doubting the realities of existence itself adds to the well-sustained aura of nostalgia.

At times, Chris Carter and Fred Spotnitz manage to initiate intense moments of silent, minimalist reflection that wilts as soon as the manipulated, forced thrill factor comes into play. The sparse dialogue and overly apparent restraint work for a while, but as soon as they no longer do, all one can do is try to believe the film will fall back on track. It never does, and Mark Snow’s score that escalates as every scene reaches its climax only confirms the shows complete disregard for the workings of the medium of film.

Admittedly, I am no huge aficionado of the television show but I can understand and appreciate what made it groundbreaking. The film, on the other hand, is a demoralizing exercise of chilling restraint where the filmmakers couldn’t realise that the true restraint would have been to avoid making another film altogether or at least if they wanted to explore the mediation of faith and science without the use of complex mythology, they could have added more to the resonant subtext brewing underneath the inapt cover of a “horror/thriller like no other.” Simply, “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” never devotes enough time to each of its numerous objectives to develop into the intellectually stimulating, bloodcurdling standalone it so desperately wanted to be.

Fatac Rating: **½

The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Directed by Chris Carter. Written by Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter, based on the series created by Carter. Cinematography by Bill Roe. Editing by Richard A. Harris. Music by Mark Snow. Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Callum Keith Rennie and Adam Godley. Running Time: 104 minutes. Age Restriction: PG 13. Year: 2008. Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars. [D]