Review for The X Files Movie: Fight the Future

Player Incompatibility Issue with Panasonic SA BT230 Home Cinema

Let’s get the annoying technicalities out of the way. On my Blu-ray player, this disc turns out to be something of a nightmare. If you choose to watch the Extended Edition on a Panasonic SA BT230 Home Cinema, then just press play and let it go all the way through. Pressing Fast Forward or Rewind, Skipping back and forth through the chapters, selecting a chapter from the scene select menu, watching the making of videos using the in movie extra mode with your remote, and most likely just pressing pause and play again, will crash the disc nine times out of ten, prompting a reboot of the player. This is in the Extended Version, the Theatrical Version plays without issue. I had a panic, thinking that my player was about to give up the ghost, and threw a bunch of other discs at it. My player was fine, but I did find the exact same problem on one other disc I’ve yet to watch in full. Yes, The X Files: I Want To Believe Movie suffers the same problem in its Director’s Cut version. Seamless branching, eh? Even more of a pain in the arse on Blu-ray than it is on DVD

Introduction

I’ve been working my way through The X Files again for the last few months, pulling out the old limited edition boxsets and indulging in a little alien and supernatural conspiracy theory and paranoia, just as we wanted the world to be back in the nineties. This time around, I’ve even went as far as buying the final seasons. I never thought much of the conclusion of The X Files the first time I saw it, so when it came to the original release, I stuck to the first five seasons and the first feature film. After all, paying over £100 for a limited edition boxset 14 years ago was a major decision, and I wasn’t going to do the same for the final four seasons, where the quality diminished, and so did the Mulder. But last year, when I saw that the series boxsets (now in unlimited Amaray cases) were selling for £10 apiece, my inner collector overrode my inner critic, the whole series completed for £40. Which is when it was announced that The X Files would be remastered for HD broadcast, and presumably eventual Blu-ray re-release! They’ve started airing the first few HD episodes of season 1 in Germany, and judging by a few screenshots, it’s come up a treat. I’ve done kicking myself, and now console myself with The X-Files feature films spin-offs on Blu-ray for some HD spookiness, although since I’m going in order, it’ll be another eighty episodes or so before I get to the second film. As it turns out, while Fight The Future has been available on Blu-ray in the US for several years now, it was only last year that it was finally released in the UK.


At the end of season 5, the X Files had been shut down, agents Scully and Mulder reassigned to more mundane duty, and the call of the paranormal, the truth behind his sister’s abduction apparently forever denied to Mulder. Given all that they had seen, it’s no surprise that a terrorist threat in Dallas would seem like dry duty, but the bomb that explodes in the FEMA offices threatens to blow open a far more insidious plot. The explosion was instigated to cover up the deaths of a child and three firemen from unexplained causes in a cave in North Texas. Even as Mulder and Scully are being castigated, and made scapegoats for deviating from procedure in Dallas, the truth behind those deaths may hold the key to exonerating them, and the full and horrifying extent of the whole conspiracy.

Picture

The first film, X Files: Fight The Future gets a 2.35:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution, and it isn’t bad, it’s not bad at all. It’s certainly a step up from the DVD, and the image is clear and detailed throughout. Skin tones are consistent, there is nice bit of depth to the image, and the colour palette is put to good use. I remember having seen the first five series on NTSC-PAL television broadcast, just how much of a leap up the first feature film was, and I got that feeling again with the movie on Blu-ray, a film that shows its feature film budget with every shot. Having said that, it’s not the best transfer of a catalogue film to Blu-ray that I have seen, and there is an overall softness to the image that never really tests the limit of the Blu-ray format. Film grain is present, as is the odd fleck or two of dirt, leading me to suspect that the Blu-ray master was struck from the same source as the DVD. Blacks can be a little crushed at times, while dark detail is comparatively lacking. It’s not a great Blu-ray transfer, but it is miles ahead of the DVD. Some of the special effects do show their television style budget in HD though, and look decidedly creaky in 2014.

Sound

There are no such qualms with the audio on this film, with a robust DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English track that has the necessary oomph for the action sequences and the explosions, keeps the dialogue clear throughout, has suitable clarity for the film’s more subdued moments, and brings across the music soundtrack without issue. Mark Snow’s themes really do work well on the big screen, and it’s a reminder of how the series episodes were so often mini-movies in their own right. You also get audio in the form of DTS 5.1 German and French, as well as DD 5.1 Thai. You get subtitles in these languages, as well as Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.

Extras

Insert the disc and following the usual logos and copyright screens, you get the choice between the Theatrical Version and the Extended Version, with about a minute’s worth of extra exposition from the Well-Manicured Man, and the can of worms that my particular Blu-ray player opened with the disc. Both options load the same menu, and you can chop and change between versions from the Extras menu.

The In Movie features allow you to have a Picture in Picture Bonusview commentary on compatible players. If you don’t, then it will play the same commentary as audio only. I had a go with the Bonusview version, and found the audio to drift out of sync. You can also watch some Behind the Camera Making of Clips, which will drop you out of the film to play a featurette regarding the making of that particular scene, before dropping you back in again. There are also some picture in picture storyboards and concept art to look at. This feature is only available on the Extended Version.


The Original 1999 Commentary track with Chris Carter and Rob Bowman is that from the original DVD release. It too is only available on the Extended Version.

The Audio Commentary with Chris Carter, Rob Bowman, Frank Spotnitz, and Daniel Sackheim was recorded for this Blu-ray release, and is the audio only version of the Bonusview commentary.

The Making of the X Files Movie (1998), is again the original featurette taken from the DVD release of the film. It lasts 27 minutes, and is presented in 480i SD resolution.

The Alternate Bee Sting Scene lasts 2 minutes and is presented in HD, as is the 3 minute Gag Reel.


Blackwood: The Making of The X Files: Fight The Future (2008) lasts 20 minutes and is presented in HD. However it merely up-scales interview elements seen in the 1998 making of, and intersperses them with HD clips of the movie. As such it’s really just a re-edit of existing material.

However there is genuine new interview material for this release, including a Visual Effects featurette that lasts 9 minutes and features an interview recorded for the Blu-ray. Similarly the Mark Snow interview in the 5 minute Scoring featurette is contemporary with the Blu-ray release.

You get three stills galleries with HD slideshows of Concept Art, Unit Photography, and Storyboards.

There are three theatrical trailers on this disc, and finally there is the trailer for The X Files: I Want To Believe.

Conclusion

The filmmakers opine in the extras that they aimed to make a film that would work for existing fans, and first time viewers who had wandered into the cinema. Now, more so than when it was released, I believe that they failed in that intent. The X Files: Fight The Future is a film that is intricately tied up with the television storyline, built on the characters and their histories in the show, and it developed an ongoing story that just doesn’t stand up when taken out of context. But you have to consider that this film was made five years into the show’s run, when it was arguably at its peak, a veritable pop-culture phenomenon. It was on prime time BBC1, Catatonia were singing songs about its stars. It wasn’t beyond the bounds of reason that the filmmakers would get 100 million X Philes into cinemas worldwide for its release. With that kind of impact, who cares if the film stands alone or not?


Fight The Future slots right into the television continuity, giving the show a much appreciated cinematic boost. Season 5 had seen the show finally get an upgrade to widescreen, and the film takes that one step further, giving the story an epic and grand feel that is just not possible on a TV budget or confined within the 1.78:1 frame of a widescreen set. To their credit, they do try and give the film some separation from the series, reinventing the Scully Mulder dynamic to make it a little more playful and flirtatious in a way that was scrupulously avoided in the early seasons of the TV show. There are also the odd moments of exposition that reintroduce the show’s mission statement, such as Mulder’s drunken exchange with the barmaid early on.


But the film quickly gets wrapped up with the show’s mythology, and in sharing those touches that the fans will instantly get, but newcomers would miss out on. Actually, looking back on my review of the DVD, I see that I’m simply repeating the same sentiments I had ten years previously. It does still feel like an extended television episode, despite the theatrical feel and budget. That’s because the filmmakers were restricted in conforming to the continuity of an ongoing television series, and couldn’t invest the film with the strong emotional arc that it needs to drive its two-hour runtime. This is probably my sixth or seventh time watching the film, and even with the context of the TV series, I find myself start to watch the clock around halfway through. Some scenes overstay their welcome; Kurtzweil is revisited a little too often, with little more to add to the narrative than the first meeting. Scully and Mulder running around the corn field in the dark makes my eyelids droop now.


It seems now like a film following a roadmap to an epic finale, and the emotional investment diminishes with each re-watch. Perhaps it comes through knowing that the show would eventually wind up entangled in, and even strangled by its own mythology. At the time Fight The Future was the most effective and impressive expression of the show’s mythology, but perhaps the show’s subsequent demise has coloured my appreciation of the film. It certainly does make me want to take another look at I Want To Believe, which is the stand alone feature that this film wasn’t, and reappraise that. Fight The Future is still a good X Files movie, just not as good as it used to be, while this Blu-ray, while better than the DVD, certainly doesn’t show the film at its best.