More than anything, this felt like an extended X-Files TV episode, but neither fitting into a myth arc story or one dealing with the paranormal or a monster of the week. One could argue that the pedophile priest was a monster and his psychic ability helped point in the direction of solving the case, but this could have been a stand alone story without Mulder (David Duchovny) or Scully (Gillian Anderson) involved in it.
The dynamic between Scully and Mulder is strained as well, not a good thing for fans of the series or the principals. There's acknowledgment of the loss of Scully's son, who by this time if you go by the end of the series run, would be about six years old. I thought Scully's bonding with the young boy Christian (Marco Niccoli) with Sandhoff disease brought those feelings of lost motherhood to the fore. But there was a huge unforced error in the script when Mulder responded to Scully's statement about his sister abducted by aliens and he responded as if it happened that way. Huge, huge error, and why Chris Carter allowed that to stand is just mind boggling.
If the story had to bring back another regular character from the series, I'm glad it was Skinner, but his appearance was almost superfluous and not really necessary to the story line. He did make a key save at one point, but that could have been handled by anyone else. As a fan of the series, I found something to like in just about every show, and I don't think I rated any individual episode below a '7', but unfortunately, that's the highest mark I can give this film. If you're a completist, by all means, see the film. But go in knowing that much of the flavor and dynamic of the original series is not re-established here. Which is a shame, the movie could have been so much more.
The dynamic between Scully and Mulder is strained as well, not a good thing for fans of the series or the principals. There's acknowledgment of the loss of Scully's son, who by this time if you go by the end of the series run, would be about six years old. I thought Scully's bonding with the young boy Christian (Marco Niccoli) with Sandhoff disease brought those feelings of lost motherhood to the fore. But there was a huge unforced error in the script when Mulder responded to Scully's statement about his sister abducted by aliens and he responded as if it happened that way. Huge, huge error, and why Chris Carter allowed that to stand is just mind boggling.
If the story had to bring back another regular character from the series, I'm glad it was Skinner, but his appearance was almost superfluous and not really necessary to the story line. He did make a key save at one point, but that could have been handled by anyone else. As a fan of the series, I found something to like in just about every show, and I don't think I rated any individual episode below a '7', but unfortunately, that's the highest mark I can give this film. If you're a completist, by all means, see the film. But go in knowing that much of the flavor and dynamic of the original series is not re-established here. Which is a shame, the movie could have been so much more.