I wanted to believe that another "X-Files" movie was a good idea. I wanted to believe that Mulder and Scully, the ultimate duo of science vs. faith, needed to be brought back and to the big screen. I wanted to believe that with years to work on the script, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz would be able to come up with an intriguing story worthy of the iconic series. Alas, like Scully, I remain a skeptic. 

Chris Carter's "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," the second film spawned from the hit television show, is a stand-alone story from the series that finds our beloved Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) being called back into the FBI to help investigate the mysterious case of a missing agent. Slow, mundane, and featuring a story that chooses to focus on yesterday's news instead of the paranormal fare of the series, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" seems to be more of an apology for the decline of the series in its last years and the unsatisfactory ways in which loose ends in the story's dense mythology were tied up. 

When an FBI agent goes missing in snow-covered West Virginia, the FBI exhausts all resources looking for her, but the only lead they have is Father Joe (Billy Connolly), a former Catholic priest and convicted pedophile, who claims to have psychic visions of the woman's whereabouts. He's a little foggy the first time around, uncovering a severed arm in the snow instead of the woman, but it's still a clue. The FBI assumes that he is an accomplice of some sort due to his knowledge of the arm's location, but agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) wants to believe that he might actually be psychic. Besides, even if he did bury the arm, there's absolutely no way he'd be able to find it again in that frozen wasteland. 

Whitney calls Dr. Scully, who has left the FBI to become a full-time doctor, to convince Mulder to come in. Scully's busy treating a young boy with a supposedly inoperable brain disease, and has no interest in being dragged back into the paranoia and darkness of her former life. She tells Mulder of the offer and he, stowed away in his home office, growing a Unabomber beard and clipping newspaper articles, agrees to go only if Scully accompanies him. When another woman disappears, a connection between the two is realized, leading to the search for underground Russian doctors involved in disturbing stem cell research experiments that in turn illuminates Father Joe's strange involvement in the case.

After almost 10 years of investigating cases with paranormal elements and extra-terrestrial implications, it's quite a letdown to find that Mulder and Scully have been reduced to chasing after deranged homosexuals in the tundra of West Virginia. Whereas the 1998 film "The X-Files: Fight the Future," fit perfectly within the story arc of the series, "I Want to Believe" is a one-off that has nothing to do with the mythology of the series. Most of my fellow fans were disappointed to hear this news, but it didn't phase me. For one, It's been eight years since I watched the show and I can't quite remember how everything ended up. Second, even if curiosity compelled me to find the time to re-watch ten years of strange cases and will-they-or-won't-they romance, my fear that the show didn't age well keeps me from doing so. But, after seeing "I Want to Believe," I now think Carter would have done better to give his fans a reward for waiting so long.

The most important element of the series has survived in this film: the battle between science and faith and Scully's reluctance to let go of her skepticism to give way to Mulder's crazy theories. But instead of handling it delicately and leaving it to simmer under the surface as it did for the entirety of the series, Carter and Spotnitz beat it into the ground in "I Want to Believe." Scully, still wearing that golden cross, is a surgeon at a Catholic hospital. Constantly surrounded by stained glass, priests, and nuns, she balances her faith with her medical knowledge and ability. She is first challenged by the case of the young boy; even though she has faith in God, the boy's illness angers her and she fights for an experimental treatment. When the boy's family decide to put their son's fate in God's hand, she challenges them and recommends the series of painful surgeries, unwilling to give up. But is it science or faith in which she fears losing hope? 

She is again challenged by Father Joe, who claims his visions are messages from God. Scully refuses to believe that God would speak to such an unworthy messenger. She is torn; part of her wants to believe that she can save the boy, and the other part makes her reluctant to believe that Father Joe could be a vessel for a holy message. Mulder, on the other hand, has always represented his own strange battle between faith and science. Constantly spouting obscure medical facts and nutball theories, he roots himself in knowledge and proof but takes great leaps of faith in his desire to believe that there's something else out there. If there is, it's not in this movie. 

After almost ten years, creator Chris Carter has nothing better to offer us than a mildly intriguing story that is nothing new and is too mundane to even have made a strong episode of the series during it's heyday. Though perhaps cut down to 45 minutes or so, "I Want to Believe" would have been more intriguing. First of all, the villains are inept (they don't use fake names and seem to take the long way 'round in doing their evil deeds), Scully is unusually stubborn and is reduced to screaming in Father Joe's face, and Mulder exhibits bravery that could be mistaken for stupidity (why should you enter the creepy laboratory by yourself?). Fans of the series won't get much out of the film, and it certainly won't inspire any newcomers to go back and start from the beginning. 

What is worth watching, though, is the interaction and still-there chemistry between Mulder and Scully. The show, watched as a whole, is a long and painful romance between two polar opposites who are clearly meant for each other. Their romance, understated and more than a little ambiguous (what exactly is their living situation?) is still filled with both tenderness and uncertainty. Even though both actors left the show behind and have appeared in other films and series, Anderson and Duchovny will always be known as a paranormal Nick and Nora. In "I Want to Believe," both actors slip back into these roles seamlessly; Duchovny's Mulder is slightly kookier but it's clear he's enjoying it while Anderson's Scully is as strong a force as ever. The duo still has the power to remind us why we watched them for so long, it's just too bad they weren't given a better case with which to make their grand return to the big screen.

The truth may still be out there, but my recommendation to Chris Carter is that he let it go.