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ohmygod i need sleep
I think the weirdest thing was that it scared me.
I have never ever ever ever been scared by anything X-Files. A little perturbed, maybe, but never actually afraid. I can't tell you how many episodes I watched for the first time at night, alone, in the dark without batting an eyelash. But this did scare me. I think it was more of a big screen/small screen thing than it was this story being scarier than anything other yarn they've spun over the years, but it felt scarier.
It was also odd to view this film from the perspective of someone who's been following news on it for months upon months -- to be mentally fitting lines to previews and visuals to promo images as the story unfolded. I lie somewhere in the middle of the spoiled vs. unspoiled line -- in the beginning I saw basically all of what little we did get, in the middle I was lazy, by the end I had backed off. But it was odd how much of the things I had seen turned out to be true -- it was weird that that kiss we had footage of was the actual kiss we ended up seeing, but I especially remembered seeing the promo image of Mulder's little faux-basement Office with the "modern-day Frankenstein" article hung on his crumpled old poster. At the time I was so convinced that had to be a fake -- it seemed ridiculous that they would release spoilers that important that early in the process. But I guess they did. That seems to odd to me.
I don't think I loved it. I know I didn't hate it. (I'm very indecisive about judgments.) It wasn't an incredible story, but it wasn't an especially horrible one. I can't decide if I needed it to be a good story or not -- the actual plot never figured into why I would see this movie, but at the same time it -- I don't know. I would've liked a flawless tale to go with it all. This wasn't that.
I did like the characterization, and I did like the characters. I liked Dakota Whitney, I liked whoever Xzibit was playing, and I liked that they were characters who were there for a reason and did not detract from Mulder or Scully. I loved having Skinner there -- I mean, I knew, and I knew he was coming as soon as Scully mentioned bringing out the big guns, but oh oh oh oh oh oh he was wonderful. Wonderful.
Somewhere mid-film I didn't like what they were doing with Mulder and Scully. I mean, separately, characterization-wise, yes, I did. They did do a phenomenal job making them people I recognized but also people who have had things happen and change in the last six-odd years. And I loved little bed scene and I loved that culminating kiss scene with the conversation about the darkness finding them, oh oh oh that was so so so right (and in fact, I think my exceeding love for the way that scene was handled is the exact reason my concerns about the rest of the Mulder/Scully were resolved). I guess I just thought the ultimatum/break-up kind of thing was such a stupid thing to drive the ~relationship story~. Why this, why now? They've been together six/eight/fifteen years. Why would this be the thing that would break them? Rifts are one thing -- they've always had that, but they were always so united despite that. I suppose they were still united here, despite themselves. I think they both even knew that it wasn't even close to being the end, but it still... I don't know. It was weird that they almost sort of broke up. But it helped that they didn't actually have to bother about getting back together, they just... were?
I didn't like the sudden weight of Samantha -- it felt off and sort of senseless, for a character that hasn't really been mentioned since mid season 7. I mean, yes, Fox Mulder will see always see Samantha in every woman in distress the same way Dana Scully will see Emily and William in every endangered child, but there was so much stress placed on it here -- stop looking for your sister, Mulder, having that picture front and center, and even the Vanessa Morley cameo (although okay, I loved the bit of silent communication that arose from that) -- that it basically undermined Closure. I mean, I hated Closure, but it was there for a reason. There was a process of letting go. It was peaceful. It... was almost like that had never happened. I don't understand why. I always thought that release was so significant in the progression of the Mulder/Scully thing that year -- even though it had been years since nothing but finding his sister mattered, having that last weight was supposed to mean something. For him, for them. And it did, but now it doesn't anymore?
I think I need to see it a couple more times before I really understand how I feel.
Our audience... left something to be desired. We got there at 10:50ish, and, seeing no line, Hannah refused to go in until 11:10. It was okay -- we had a couple errant Scullys and Mulders and our theater eventually ended up mostly full, but... it didn't feel like a midnight showing. Maybe I can't say that -- this is only the second movie I've ever bothered to go to at midnight, and the first was at the Alamo, so it doesn't really feel like a comparable experience -- but drawing from all the Harry Potter and Pirates movies I've ended up seeing on opening day (mostly because that's how Meredith rolls) it wasn't... like that. There was so rush to get there early enough to find seats, nobody sitting on the stairs because they couldn't find seats together, no lines. It felt more like the way I usually see movies -- two weeks late, with a theater 3/4 full of people who kind of wanted to see the movie. We didn't cheer (actually, for Skinner we might have, I was too caught up in my own excitement to really pay attention). Which was okay -- it was a personal enough experience for me that a loud, boisterous crowd might've hurt my own viewing, but I still think I would've liked a little more atmosphere. I know it's just Boulder, Colorado, and who really wants to go to a midnight showing here, but. But but but.
Part of me rationalizes this as a natural thing -- midnight showings are mostly for the 16 to 25ish crowd, and most of that age group doesn't remember this show well enough to have loved it. I was 3 when the show began and 12 when it ended, and fortune and fandom overzealousness are really the only reasons I had a chance to fall in love with it. I'm sure a significant number of the people who loved it then have lives now -- jobs and kids they have to get up for in the morning, responsibilities that prevent them from going to a film they won't get home from until 2 in the morning. But mostly I think it's just that for most of the world, this movie just isn't that big of a deal.
July 25th was always going to be my big day of this summer (and, hell, this year), at least in a pop culture sense. I watch a lot of television, and I love a lot of television, but there's something about this show and the way it makes me feel -- it's become almost more of an extension of my personality than just something I love. That's Alexandra, she loves that X-Files show. Maybe most people don't think of me that way, but the people I'm closest to do. If my sister and Meredith love it as much as I do, it's because I insisted they experience it with me. If Vivian and her sister both bring up David Duchovny as soon as the subject of attractive celebrities are broached, it's because my sister and I trained that in them. There's a reason I've got more than a few high school friends listed in my phone as as "Mulder" and "Pendrell" instead of "Sophi" and "Julia". The X-Files speak, the "remember that episode...?", it's become a sort of odd private language the people closest to me can speak in. And my extended family always thinks to call me when they hear something X-Filesey on the news. Not to mention you guys -- my dear, dear flist, half of whom are nodding your heads in perfect comprehension, and the other half of whom aren't, but over time you've probably come to associate me most with my favorite show. It isn't that I don't have a life outside of this show, because I do -- and my relationships with these people stretch so far beyond any kind of pop culture. I guess I just mean that the X-Files is very, very present in my life, even when I'm caught in the throes of some other interest and haven't thought to think about it in weeks. I've made it present. I've made my own little bubble where this really, actually was the biggest day of the year for everyone. But outside of Alexandraland, it isn't.
I keep thinking about the last bit of Duchovny's latest blog entry: batman's got everybody scared that we can't do business, and well, it is some kind of a box office juggernaut. but i want to believe. i want to believe that our loyal fans will go see us right away (see some of you at the premiere tomorrow) and they will bring friends who never watched the x files and they will tell a friend and we will become viral and keep growing and hang on for weeks. a boy can dream. see you at the movies.
I want to believe too, but I don't think I do. I'd like to think that this'll end up a franchise, that every few years we'll get another story with Mulder and Scully at the forefront. It's been strange, these last few months. When I fell in love with this show, I fell in love with something that was over and done with. And then it very suddenly wasn't. It was a funny change. It still is. And, as much as I'd like to think the numbers won't end up disappointing me, Duchov, and whichever exec up at Fox gets to choose whether or not it's profitable enough to invest in XF3, I don't think we've got a chance. But, hey, it's been fun.
(Incidentally, I was almost too caught up in the wtfery that was the post-credits scene to remember to say "nailed it!", but Hannah remembered for us. But no one else said it.)
P.S. if you haven't seen it: I promise the mood I chose has nothing to do with my actual feelings for the actual film. NOT A REACTION, PINKY SWEAR.
I have never ever ever ever been scared by anything X-Files. A little perturbed, maybe, but never actually afraid. I can't tell you how many episodes I watched for the first time at night, alone, in the dark without batting an eyelash. But this did scare me. I think it was more of a big screen/small screen thing than it was this story being scarier than anything other yarn they've spun over the years, but it felt scarier.
It was also odd to view this film from the perspective of someone who's been following news on it for months upon months -- to be mentally fitting lines to previews and visuals to promo images as the story unfolded. I lie somewhere in the middle of the spoiled vs. unspoiled line -- in the beginning I saw basically all of what little we did get, in the middle I was lazy, by the end I had backed off. But it was odd how much of the things I had seen turned out to be true -- it was weird that that kiss we had footage of was the actual kiss we ended up seeing, but I especially remembered seeing the promo image of Mulder's little faux-basement Office with the "modern-day Frankenstein" article hung on his crumpled old poster. At the time I was so convinced that had to be a fake -- it seemed ridiculous that they would release spoilers that important that early in the process. But I guess they did. That seems to odd to me.
I don't think I loved it. I know I didn't hate it. (I'm very indecisive about judgments.) It wasn't an incredible story, but it wasn't an especially horrible one. I can't decide if I needed it to be a good story or not -- the actual plot never figured into why I would see this movie, but at the same time it -- I don't know. I would've liked a flawless tale to go with it all. This wasn't that.
I did like the characterization, and I did like the characters. I liked Dakota Whitney, I liked whoever Xzibit was playing, and I liked that they were characters who were there for a reason and did not detract from Mulder or Scully. I loved having Skinner there -- I mean, I knew, and I knew he was coming as soon as Scully mentioned bringing out the big guns, but oh oh oh oh oh oh he was wonderful. Wonderful.
Somewhere mid-film I didn't like what they were doing with Mulder and Scully. I mean, separately, characterization-wise, yes, I did. They did do a phenomenal job making them people I recognized but also people who have had things happen and change in the last six-odd years. And I loved little bed scene and I loved that culminating kiss scene with the conversation about the darkness finding them, oh oh oh that was so so so right (and in fact, I think my exceeding love for the way that scene was handled is the exact reason my concerns about the rest of the Mulder/Scully were resolved). I guess I just thought the ultimatum/break-up kind of thing was such a stupid thing to drive the ~relationship story~. Why this, why now? They've been together six/eight/fifteen years. Why would this be the thing that would break them? Rifts are one thing -- they've always had that, but they were always so united despite that. I suppose they were still united here, despite themselves. I think they both even knew that it wasn't even close to being the end, but it still... I don't know. It was weird that they almost sort of broke up. But it helped that they didn't actually have to bother about getting back together, they just... were?
I didn't like the sudden weight of Samantha -- it felt off and sort of senseless, for a character that hasn't really been mentioned since mid season 7. I mean, yes, Fox Mulder will see always see Samantha in every woman in distress the same way Dana Scully will see Emily and William in every endangered child, but there was so much stress placed on it here -- stop looking for your sister, Mulder, having that picture front and center, and even the Vanessa Morley cameo (although okay, I loved the bit of silent communication that arose from that) -- that it basically undermined Closure. I mean, I hated Closure, but it was there for a reason. There was a process of letting go. It was peaceful. It... was almost like that had never happened. I don't understand why. I always thought that release was so significant in the progression of the Mulder/Scully thing that year -- even though it had been years since nothing but finding his sister mattered, having that last weight was supposed to mean something. For him, for them. And it did, but now it doesn't anymore?
I think I need to see it a couple more times before I really understand how I feel.
Our audience... left something to be desired. We got there at 10:50ish, and, seeing no line, Hannah refused to go in until 11:10. It was okay -- we had a couple errant Scullys and Mulders and our theater eventually ended up mostly full, but... it didn't feel like a midnight showing. Maybe I can't say that -- this is only the second movie I've ever bothered to go to at midnight, and the first was at the Alamo, so it doesn't really feel like a comparable experience -- but drawing from all the Harry Potter and Pirates movies I've ended up seeing on opening day (mostly because that's how Meredith rolls) it wasn't... like that. There was so rush to get there early enough to find seats, nobody sitting on the stairs because they couldn't find seats together, no lines. It felt more like the way I usually see movies -- two weeks late, with a theater 3/4 full of people who kind of wanted to see the movie. We didn't cheer (actually, for Skinner we might have, I was too caught up in my own excitement to really pay attention). Which was okay -- it was a personal enough experience for me that a loud, boisterous crowd might've hurt my own viewing, but I still think I would've liked a little more atmosphere. I know it's just Boulder, Colorado, and who really wants to go to a midnight showing here, but. But but but.
Part of me rationalizes this as a natural thing -- midnight showings are mostly for the 16 to 25ish crowd, and most of that age group doesn't remember this show well enough to have loved it. I was 3 when the show began and 12 when it ended, and fortune and fandom overzealousness are really the only reasons I had a chance to fall in love with it. I'm sure a significant number of the people who loved it then have lives now -- jobs and kids they have to get up for in the morning, responsibilities that prevent them from going to a film they won't get home from until 2 in the morning. But mostly I think it's just that for most of the world, this movie just isn't that big of a deal.
July 25th was always going to be my big day of this summer (and, hell, this year), at least in a pop culture sense. I watch a lot of television, and I love a lot of television, but there's something about this show and the way it makes me feel -- it's become almost more of an extension of my personality than just something I love. That's Alexandra, she loves that X-Files show. Maybe most people don't think of me that way, but the people I'm closest to do. If my sister and Meredith love it as much as I do, it's because I insisted they experience it with me. If Vivian and her sister both bring up David Duchovny as soon as the subject of attractive celebrities are broached, it's because my sister and I trained that in them. There's a reason I've got more than a few high school friends listed in my phone as as "Mulder" and "Pendrell" instead of "Sophi" and "Julia". The X-Files speak, the "remember that episode...?", it's become a sort of odd private language the people closest to me can speak in. And my extended family always thinks to call me when they hear something X-Filesey on the news. Not to mention you guys -- my dear, dear flist, half of whom are nodding your heads in perfect comprehension, and the other half of whom aren't, but over time you've probably come to associate me most with my favorite show. It isn't that I don't have a life outside of this show, because I do -- and my relationships with these people stretch so far beyond any kind of pop culture. I guess I just mean that the X-Files is very, very present in my life, even when I'm caught in the throes of some other interest and haven't thought to think about it in weeks. I've made it present. I've made my own little bubble where this really, actually was the biggest day of the year for everyone. But outside of Alexandraland, it isn't.
I keep thinking about the last bit of Duchovny's latest blog entry: batman's got everybody scared that we can't do business, and well, it is some kind of a box office juggernaut. but i want to believe. i want to believe that our loyal fans will go see us right away (see some of you at the premiere tomorrow) and they will bring friends who never watched the x files and they will tell a friend and we will become viral and keep growing and hang on for weeks. a boy can dream. see you at the movies.
I want to believe too, but I don't think I do. I'd like to think that this'll end up a franchise, that every few years we'll get another story with Mulder and Scully at the forefront. It's been strange, these last few months. When I fell in love with this show, I fell in love with something that was over and done with. And then it very suddenly wasn't. It was a funny change. It still is. And, as much as I'd like to think the numbers won't end up disappointing me, Duchov, and whichever exec up at Fox gets to choose whether or not it's profitable enough to invest in XF3, I don't think we've got a chance. But, hey, it's been fun.
(Incidentally, I was almost too caught up in the wtfery that was the post-credits scene to remember to say "nailed it!", but Hannah remembered for us. But no one else said it.)
P.S. if you haven't seen it: I promise the mood I chose has nothing to do with my actual feelings for the actual film. NOT A REACTION, PINKY SWEAR.
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