The X-Files: Fight the Future Review
by David Sunga (zookeeper AT criticzoo DOT com)June 30th, 1998
Rating: 3.0 stars (out of 4.0)
********************************
Key to rating system:
2.0 stars - Debatable
2.5 stars - Some people may like it
3.0 stars - I liked it
3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie
4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out *********************************
A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by: Rob Bowman
Written by: Chris Carter
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis
Ingredients: Aliens, conspiracy theories, two FBI agent partners
Prior to a catastrophic bombing in Dallas, FBI agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson)and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) are able to evacuate the building. But when a few bodies are mysteriously found in the rubble, the partners are placed before an FBI panel investigating them for professional negligence.
A discredited author named Kurtzweil (Martin Landau) tells Mulder that the bombing was a coverup: the bodies were actually dead long before the explosion. The victims died of a peculiar alien virus: once the virus is implanted into a human host, an alien fetus begins to form which uses the human tissue for food and breaks out of the corpse as a malevolent, full-fledged alien humanoid. Kurtzweil also insists that the coverup is the work of a shadow government, a powerful cartel whose very existence remains a secret.
Although it sounds like a hoax, Scully and Mulder check out Kurtzweil's tale. In order to acquit themselves before the FBI panel, Scully and Mulder search for proof of the existence of either Aliens or of the secret government, but as they investigate, sinister anonymous forces try to stop them. As a result, the two partners begin to question their dedication to each other, and their commitment to finding the elusive truth.
Will partners Scully and Mulder continue to support each other? Will their insistence that "the truth is out there" ever be vindicated by a glimpse of the actual truth?
Opinion:
Imagine a dangerous fictional world where the truth of a situation is carefully hidden from the public. For example, suppose an international totalitarian corporation, selling unrelated products through fake 'front' companies, filled key scenes in Hollywood movies with conveniently placed products, using product placement to subconsciously influence movie audiences to buy things.
An unobservant person living in such a world might imagine he/she lives in a world devoid of influence, a world of complete free will, laissez faire capitalism, with diverse products to choose from. Another person, carefully noticing the product placement in movie scenes, might deduce that he/she lives in a world of free will, but with substantial advertisement from competing companies. Finally, the person who digs the deepest might describe the same world as superficially free, but in reality controlled by a cartel - - whose main objective is to get people to part with their economic dollars, political votes, and other forms of power in order to monopolize power for a sinister oligarchy which exterminates competition and keeps the truth hidden from ordinary people through the use of press releases, spin doctors, Hollywood agents, and an army of lawyers.
THE X-FILES occurs in a similar imaginary world - - a cosmos where truth is deliberately obscured by powerful groups who keep the truth hidden behind illusory levels of misinformation. It seems there are three main power groups: the US government (fairly benign, but always a good candidate for secret agendas), the shadow government (people in powerful positions, who for the last 50 years, have had access to advanced technology and some ability to counter it), and finally Aliens from outer space. The government, the secret government, and the Aliens all have their own agenda: each group deliberately obscures the truth, each group infiltrates the other, and each group may act in collusion with or defy the other groups when a situation serves its purpose. Finally there are also rebels and informants in the X-Files world.
In such a convoluted world deluged with information and misinformation, heroes are defined as ordinary people capable of honest love and loyalty, who strive against all odds to perceive the truth - - and occasionally glimpse a measure of it, despite the antagonism of powers that be. In other words, heroes are individuals like government workers Scully and Mulder.
The main goal in the average summer action movie is for the heroes to endure lots of chase scenes, and then wrap up by solving all the problems and defeating a clear-cut villain by the end of the movie. On the other hand, the main goal for an X-Files hero is to get a glimpse of the truth in a decidedly untruthful world. As long as that distinction is kept in mind, THE X-FILES is an enjoyable movie.
Reviewed by David Sunga
June 21, 1998
Copyright © 1998 by David Sunga
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