Fans of The X-Files TV show, I'm told, love to be mystified. Week after week of loose ends just keep them coming back for more.
Series creator Chris Carter and director Rob Bowman apparently are banking on movie fans to respond to the same treatment with equal enthusiasm.
The X-Files on the big screen stirs up a great, frothing pot of weird occurrences, coincidences, revelations, near-misses, hints and allegations, tops it with special effects -- an explosion, a space ship, gooey alien guts -- and dishes it out with a wink and a nod.
Even by the forgiving narrative standards of TV science fiction, the movie doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense.
For instance:
Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) appear to be the most inept investigators in human history. They escape from one death-defying close encounter after another, they break into secret labs at will, they do autopsies, for crying out loud, yet can't seem to bring back so much as a drop of space-invader blood to back up their stories.
Then there are the contradictory motives, the ill-defined villains, the inexplicable time continuum. It's an exercise in frustration to seek order in this story; I advise against it.
Instead, concentrate on savoring the flashes of humor that pepper the proceedings. The filmmakers have the good sense to make fun of themselves, as when Mr. Duchovny gets the first, best laugh with a self-deprecating joke aimed at his famous stone-faced acting style. Those scenes are the movie's most satisfying; too bad there are not more of them.
The X-Files isn't likely to go down in history as as great sci-fi flick, but it harbors enough good fun to qualify as a jolt of sprightly, brainless summer entertainment.
