Has the world been waiting for ‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’?

It’s hard to know whether The X-Files has “been away so long that it’s starting to be forgotten,” said John Horn in the Los Angeles Times, or if the six year “gap created so much pent-up demand that” moviegoers will flock to theaters when The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens on Friday. “Strong box-office sales proved Sex and the City still meant something to millions of fans” of that TV show, so maybe there’s hope for the new X-Files movie.

But X-Files: I Want to Believe “doesn’t have quite the same amount of buzz” or “interest among mainstream media” as the Sex and the City movie did, said Edward Douglas in Comingsoon.net’s blog The Weekend Warrior. And the X-Files TV show was “already losing its audience by the time it ended.” Die-hard fans will see it, but that’s about it.

We need Agent Scully now more than ever, said Rebecca Traister in Salon. “In an entertainment world where women are disappearing from multiplexes” and “men bulk up as superheroes while women don’t eat but sip pink drinks, we need to remember” a “heroine who hunted monsters and talked about Einstein, who kicked ass and questioned her faith, who went to work with a man she loved but didn’t rip his shirt off over lunch.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up