THE X-FILES

• Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and Martin Landau
• Directed by Rob Bowman
• Rated PG-13, with profanity, violence and a slimy autopsy; running time 121 minutes
• With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a 7

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(June 19, 1998) -- OK, I admit it. I've never seen a complete episode of The X-Files on TV. I'm a virgin, not a Filer.

But after doing a fair amount of homework, I can say with some confidence that a better name for the show, and the new movie based on it, would be The Big Tease.

The excitement of the popular sci-fi/government conspiracy TV show comes from what it hints at, not what it delivers.

You begin to suspect that X-Files creator Chris Carter can't possibly deliver explanations as fascinating as the paranoid suspicions he raises. So he doesn't try -- not even in this two-hour feature film format.

Still, as teasers go, the $60 million film version of The X-Files is first-rate fun.

The murky backgrounds, the alien threats, the rampant conspiracies, the spooky characters -- they all draw you in.

And the affectionate byplay and sexual tension between investigators Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are as enticing as I'd been led to believe.

If you, too, are an X-Files virgin, you may want to read the basic primer, elsewhere on this page.

Or find some Filer friends to join you. I took five veterans to an advance screening of the film, and they gave me some useful pointers.

Writer Carter and veteran X-Files director Rob Bowman have constructed the film as a continuation -- the next step after the final episode of the show's fifth season, which ended last month.

Though my veterans liked the film, they were a bit disappointed that aspects of the regular season finale remain unaddressed.

Why did the Cigarette-Smoking Man torch Mulder's office?

What's the nature of the super-intelligent hybrid child, blending alien and human DNA, who showed up in the finale?

Maybe the filmmakers didn't want to overload the brains of newcomers like me.

It's enough to know that at the end of the series, the covert X-Files government division was closed down. As the film opens, Mulder and Scully are reluctantly working for a more conventional anti-terrorist wing of the FBI.

They're investigating a threat to bomb a major federal building in Dallas. When it explodes, Mulder -- a former investigator of the paranormal and the paranoid -- immediately suspects a connection with his old job.

Of course, he's right. In this show, the paranoids always are.

Before you can say "trust no one," Mulder and Scully are back in the thick of the show's longest-running plot line: A group of powerful quasi-government types have agreed to help a virulent race of aliens take over the Earth.

Soon, Mulder and Scully are looking into bizarre happenings as close as the nation's capital and as far away as Antarctica.

The film's well-staged, quick-cut action sequences, a few intense moments of fear, and the mysterious supporting characters are more than enough to divert viewers from the parade of unanswered questions.

Mistrust and confusion ooze out of the film like the gooey, black alien oil that bubbles out of a 35,000-year-old hole in the ground and starts all the trouble.

Like the glorified TV episode that it is, The X-Files satisfies the viewer's need for a self-contained story, but leaves plenty of elements open for the TV show's forthcoming sixth season.

For newcomers, the delights may come in unrelated fragments: the sight of Mulder relieving himself on an Independence Day poster, the ill-timed bee sting that disrupts Mulder and Scully's long-awaited kiss.

Fans tell me the film looks and feels like an authentic, well-produced X-Files episode, despite costing about 50 times as much. The big budget apparently was used for the elaborate special effects that conclude the film.

The casting budget also was enlarged to include guest performances by such well-regarded actors as Blythe Danner, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Martin Landau.

But only Landau, with his gaunt face and suspicious, darting eyes, seems at home, playing a conspiracy specialist who provides key tips to Mulder.

Whether you'll feel at home with this film depends on your willingness to accept the sort of half-full, half-empty sensation viewers felt when The Empire Strikes Back left unresolved plot elements in 1981.

If you can live with that -- and if you're among the many who enjoy a good tease as much as a big payoff -- The X-Files is worth seeing.