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The TV series was still in full swing back when Fight the Future was released (slotted between the fifth and sixth season), whereas with I Want to Believe, the TV series had ended a good six years previously. The other difference was that the first film felt like a blockbuster, dealing with a huge government conspiracy about aliens on Earth. I Want to Believe, felt like a small-scale thriller.

“It was a very tough situation, having a pretty small scale movie opening a week after one of the biggest movies of all time,” said Spotnitz in an interview with iF magazine, which took place after the film had opened. However opening a week after The Dark Knight didn’t pose such a problem with Sony’s Step Brothers, which opened the same day as I Want to Believe, and earned $30 million that same weekend. It also had surprisingly better reviews! Spotnitz addressed the issue, highlighting how I Want To Believe was catering to the same target audience as The Dark Knight. “I think the bigger problem was that we weren't counter-programming, like Step Brothers and Mamma Mia! were,” said Spotnitz. “If you were looking for a dark, scary movie experience, you were almost certainly going to The Dark Knight that weekend, unless you happened to be a big X-Files fan.”

Apart from the characters, the story didn’t really have much to do with anything that was covered on The X-Files series. In this regard it works well as a standalone film. However, it also means that fans can do well to give this a miss. The film struggles in the first act to get Mulder and Scully back together and working with the FBI in the first place, and once it does they’re in a rather lacklustre scenario. The body swapping/transplant situation is certainly X-File territory, but it involves just one person and looks more like it’s taking place in someone’s extended shed. Enlarging the premise might have made more of an impact, maybe including more victims and locations beside Virginia.

Marketed as a blockbuster (the brilliantly effective trailers make it look more exciting than it actually is) it was lacking elements one expects from a blockbuster released during the summer movie season. There are no explosions in this film, and while guns are seen, they are never fired. “I'm guessing a lot of the critical reaction is based on what they were expecting the movie to be, given its release date, rather than what the movie actually is,” said Spotnitz. I would have to agree, really, and if Fox wanted the film to play better, they should have scheduled it outside of the summer.

I hadn’t really watched a lot of the later seasons of the TV series, yet in the run up to the film’s release I was intrigued. The story just wasn’t a strong enough pull. Having now seen it, there are some elements I enjoyed, testing one’s belief and a slight play on religious faith (“Maybe it’s not God doing the sending”). In the end there are some episodes from the TV series that are more exciting than this film. Thing is, the acting is fine from everyone (Billy Connolly is actually very good in this), and technically it looks and sounds great. But even if you have the best talent on board, if the story isn’t up to snuff, then what’s the point?

The TV series concluded with Mulder learning that an alien invasion of Earth was planned for 2012. Another X-Files film that refers to these events has been talked about, and the intention had been to release it in 2012. Had The X-Files: I Want to Believe shown strong box office, I’m sure 20th Century Fox would fast track the idea. Given where we are now, it seems highly unlikely to happen.

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