X-Filer Fun

Plot holes aside, Scully and Mulder once again manage to entertain

Comments (0) By Andy Klein Thursday, Jun 18 1998

The plot is hard enough to follow anyway -- and some really dark cinematography doesn't help -- but the egregious disdain for logic may make newcomers in particular throw up their hands in confusion.

While the movie does unequivocally clear up one of the show's ongoing mysteries, it leaves plenty of questions still up in the air. And a number of central issues are barely touched on: There's only a brief mention of Mulder's sister, and there are no shape-shifters.

Certainly it would have been impossible -- and disastrous to Fox's TV cash cow -- to clear up everything. And, even as it is, the situations have an overwhelming sense of familiarity to anyone who's watched even a few episodes of the show. The filmmakers even acknowledge this near the end: "How many times have we been here before, Scully?" Mulder asks.

You almost expect Scully to say, "Let's see: five seasons so far, at 22 episodes per season.... About 110!" But no such luck.

The X-Files.
Rated PG-13.
Directed by Rob Bowman. With David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau and William B. Davis.