ohmygod i need sleep
Jul. 25th, 2008 04:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elapsesI 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.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-26 02:48 am (UTC)UPSIDES THOUGH: I do appreciate the fact that this was definitely a film for the fans. But this:
I would've liked a flawless tale to go with it all.
was how I felt too. And I kept thinking back to FtF and how FUCKING BADASS AND AMAZING THAT WAS and this just...wasn't the same. Although alllll the little things they did for the fans made me smile and laugh and sometimes even clap! and even the crazy-ass ending made me giiiiiggle (come on, it's kind of really hilarious, you can't tell me it isn't) even if it made me cringe since I made my brother stay with the OH TEN OTHER PEOPLE WHO STAYED to see that. Just...Yeah, the company you share really makes a difference :( :( OH and the song playing at the end? Was AWESOME. And the kiss scene, i agree, was gorgeously shot. As were the sentiments Mulder was conveying at the end. I mean, in sentiment, i agree, they do a great job of putting us in these character's lives as a kind of WHERE ARE THEY NOW! segment (i'm not being facetious!) but like that first scene with Mulder and Scully and Father Joe (who, by the way, I didn't find interesting at all?) all of Scully's "skepticism" felt waaaaaay too forced and not natural at all? I DON'T KNOW. And the whole SCULLY'S A SERIOUS DOCTOR NOW WITH MORAL/ETHICAL DILEMMAS SHES DEALING WITH INVOLVING HER FAITH also felt so heavy handed and I couldn't make myself get into it even though I really wanted to! UGH I AM SO DISAPPOINTED IN MYSELF :( :(
no subject
Date: 2008-07-26 04:06 am (UTC)OH MY GOD, HASN'T IT BEEN SUCH AN EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER????? In the theater I was jittery and excitable and during I was... I don't even know, it changed so often and on the way home I was oh so shell-shocked that I had just seen a new X-Files movie that I kind of feel like I shouldn't have been driving a large vehicle? Today I've been jumping back and forth between "WHAT IS THIS SHIT" and "but remember that part? that was lovely" and it's sort of settled into this gross melancholy KNOT IN MY STOMACH that I can't seem to shake. And meanwhile every bad review and half-empty theater is actually kind of breaking my heart :( :( :( I'M SO OVERINVESTED IT IS ACTUALLY RIDICULOUS.
Your newspaper is a douchebag, ugh.
I don't know, I feel like I need to see this again to see if it's as bad as I thought it was or if my expectations were way too high or if I was holding it to too rigid of a standard (which I don't think is wrong given what this franchise means to me?)
And like, I don't know. A lot of the episodes of the show itself are half-hearted stories made wonderful by the simple inclusion of MULDER AND SCULLY and that's one of the ways season 8 went so wrong -- I feel like all those excruciatingly boring Scully/Doggett (that is a very platonic punctuation mark between their names, by the way) cases in the beginning might've actually been episodes we all loved if they'd had a few Mulderisms and Scully eyebrows? I guess what I mean is that this fandom has a long history of loving episodes despite a crappy storyline because of the Mulder/Scully. But we've also had episodes that are flawless start to finish. I guess I was just hoping this film would be a Pusher, and it ended up being an Arcadia.
kept thinking, where is the Scully I used to know :( :( :(
You knowwwwwww she didn't really bother me during viewing but this afternoon I've been thinking about 2012 and fighting the future and I'm suddenly really bothered that Scully's started some new career and Mulder's hiding out cutting out newspaper articles and obsessing over his dead sister when they're SUPPOSED TO BE SAVING THE WORLD. You know? They're supposed to be TRYING and they're not and I get this feeling this Scully, this 2008 Scully, wouldn't want the darkness that would come with that. (But at the same time I liked the way they did the darkness thing, because OH MY GOD THE LAST SCENE???? Like, not even just the kiss and how pretty that was it was just so emotionally pitch-perfect for me. Like, had that scene not existed, I would be a lot more disappointed than I even am.) But... how could they not be doing everything in their power?
I guess, however crappy the mytharc ended up, it just feels wrong to separate Mulder and Scully so completely from it. The stupid aliens, the conspiracy, the god damn supersoldiers -- that was part of them. I don't understand why it isn't now. I don't get how they could just let go.
I know, blah blah blah standalone film :( BUT STILL! Could they not have thrown us a bone? I MISS FIGHT THE FUTURE TOO.
Um, I'm throwing the last two paragraphs of this comment with the reply to your next comment becauseeeeeee according to LJ I talk too much :(
day two ramblings, part 1: seeing it again, the msr, etc. etc.
Date: 2008-07-26 05:07 pm (UTC)And I haaaate being one of those people who's bitching and raining on people's parades. But I don't think I am! There are things I definitely liked about it, but there are also things about it that really really disappointed me and I can't help that! :( :( I know we were supposed to see how they've grown but...I miss who they were? BUT MAYBE I JUST DON'T LIKE CHANGE. I still don't know what the fuck I'm talking about :(
Today I've been jumping back and forth between "WHAT IS THIS SHIT" and "but remember that part? that was lovely" and it's sort of settled into this gross melancholy KNOT IN MY STOMACH that I can't seem to shake.
YES THIS IS ME, TOO.
they had six years. Six fucking years to make this the BEST POSSIBLE FILM. It isn't even that it's a trainwreck, because I don't think it really was, I just... I wanted it to be some sort of paradigm I could hold up to the world and say "This. This is my show." They had six years to make it that. And they didn't.
YES TO THIS TOO. Gosh it's seriously frightening how in my head you are. I get wanting to do something completely different and un-XFiles, but even the actual murder? At first, I was really super intrigued, but I think the splicing between the murder/kidnapping and looking for that woman TOTALLY DAMPENED MY INTEREST. I was kind of hoping that they'd have it be like an actual episode in that shit goes down-- you don't know who the people are and what's going on, you're introduced to the baddies and the crazy shit they do, and then jump ahead to the FBI trying to solve the case. Like, in my head, I think this movie could have been made a lot better just by re-structuring things and paying more attention to people like Amanda Peet and Xzibit's characters, because then it's about more than just mulder and scully existing and being together and really attractive old people. (Although at times their age really showed? I HATE TO SAY IT BUT IT'S TRUE. AND UNAVOIDABLE?)
But we've also had episodes that are flawless start to finish. I guess I was just hoping this film would be a Pusher, and it ended up being an Arcadia.
Yeah everything you said here is very true, but I don't think this was even Arcadia! Because with Arcadia, regardless of how lame/silly it was, I was still interested and intrigued. It still felt like the XF and the Mulder/Scully-ness that saved it worked because it was the perfect accents to the story. And that's why the MSR is so amazing and clutch to begin with-- IT WAS NEVER THE FOCUS OF THE STORY and yet, it became that on it's own. It became the mammouth, powerful force to be reckoned with that it is because it had the space and freedom to become that because it wasn't written with the intent of being the next ~*EPIC LUV STORY*~, you know? It just grew into it?
Re: day two ramblings, part 1: seeing it again, the msr, etc. etc.
Date: 2008-07-27 07:12 pm (UTC)OKAY YES. And I feel so guilty for not loving it but then I also feel weird for... feeling guilty because I am allowed to dislike things but. But.
I don't know. I'd like to think I'm not raining on anyone's parade because I'm trying not to say bad things to people who loved it and most of my most negative feelings are being expressed in comments but I also feel like just feeling this way makes me a big cloud of movie negativity? ...this paragraph makes no sense?
Like, in my head, I think this movie could have been made a lot better just by re-structuring things and paying more attention to people like Amanda Peet and Xzibit's characters, because then it's about more than just mulder and scully existing and being together and really attractive old people.
YOU'RE VERY VERY RIGHT. I mean, I don't know, part of me thinks the story was inherently flawed but I do think your postulation of re-structuring makes a lot of sense. And yeah: the bottom line for me is that if this had been the same film in another franchise, sans Mulder and Scully? My reaction would have been "what is this shit?"
To an extent I can sympathize with all the people on my flist who loved it because it was about Mulder and Scully (it helps that I'm wishy-washy and empathizing with basically everything everyone says) but... I guess the thing is, if the show had just been a bunch of semi-crappy horror mysteries like this framed by a really really incredible love story I wouldn't have fallen in love with it like I did. We, as a franchise, can do SO MUCH BETTER. And it upsets me that this is the venture that got thrown up on a huge screen for the whole world to see :(
(Although at times their age really showed? I HATE TO SAY IT BUT IT'S TRUE. AND UNAVOIDABLE?)
AHHHH I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE.
but I don't think this was even Arcadia! Because with Arcadia, regardless of how lame/silly it was, I was still interested and intrigued. It still felt like the XF and the Mulder/Scully-ness that saved it worked because it was the perfect accents to the story.
You're right, watching those good episodes last night has confirmed this for me :( :( :( Arcadia was based on a crappy story but it all MESHED. The movie was more like... one of those late season 8 episodes where Mulder and Scully are adorable but the episode is crap. Except I didn't have to deal with 30 minutes of Doggett looking confused, so UPGRADE.
Re: day two ramblings, part 1: seeing it again, the msr, etc. etc.
Date: 2008-07-27 11:38 pm (UTC)It makes perfect sense because it's exactly my approach to it, too. UGH, WHY DO WE HAVE TO CARE SO MUCH? It makes my heart hurt. :(
I mean, I don't know, part of me thinks the story was inherently flawed but I do think your postulation of re-structuring makes a lot of sense.
I agree, it was inherently flawed. But I guess it just would have been more bearable if it were tightened?
And yeah: the bottom line for me is that if this had been the same film in another franchise, sans Mulder and Scully? My reaction would have been "what is this shit?"
YES EXACTLY. I mean, it physically pains me to say this, but I couldn't stop my brain from thinking WHAT IS THIS FUCKERY WHAT IS THIS FUCKERY WHAT IS THIS FUCKERY half-way through until a few hours after I saw it. AND I DIDN'T WANT TO BE THINKING THAT AT ALL. And this also hurts me to say, but I compare it (ACK THIS IS THE WORST THING TO DO EVARRRR) to TDK and how much I was looking forward to that and how even though my expectations were higher than anything you could ever imagine, they completely exceeded it both with story, intrigue, action, performances, etc. And they didn't have nearly as much time! NOR ARE THEY THE FUCKING X-FILES, AKA MADE OF GREATNESS. BLAH BLAH WHATEVER BLAH.
it helps that I'm wishy-washy and empathizing with basically everything everyone says
I DO THIS TOO AND IT'S SO FRUSTRATING. For instance: I just read
Even if the story really is about Mulder and Scully at this point (which I do believe it is) they're not an Island. The show isn't the Mulder and Scully show (LOL EVEN IF IT IS IN MY BRAIN) it's THE X-FILES. The X-Files are the backbone that make the Mulder and Scully show as AMAZING AS IT IS. I just have a really hard time separating the two and cutting the film slack I wouldn't have cut it were this an episode during it's run.
EVEN MORE SO BECAUSE THIS IS PROBABLY THE LAST TIME WE'LL EVER SEE THEM.
part two: re being a standalone film, seperate from mytharc
Date: 2008-07-26 05:15 pm (UTC)EXACTLY. I completely get disconnecting them from the mytharc, but regardless of what context they put them in, IT HAS STILL SHAPED THEM AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP IN WAYS WE COULD NEVER IMAGINE, YOU KNOW???? And Mulder-- after everything he's been through and worked for and all of that, to think that he just kind of gives up and lives happily ever after? I really want to believe (no pun intended) that he/they could do that, but I just don't think it's in their nature AT ALL. But at the same time, I have never even seen the 9th season so I'm not one to really talk but. I don't know. I think there were ways to have them have that almost delusional happily ever after thing going on (delusional in the sense that they're just trying to make the best of the time they have together before everything goes to hell) while still being true to them.
But I'm constantly second guessing myself and wondering, but wait-- maybe this is them and I'm being too harsh with my criticism? After all the shit they've gone through, they've grown and changed and all they want is each other and nothing else matters? BECAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE TOO. And I LOVE that idea, but...To say that this film is great on that sheer basis while completely disregarding the crap story they're telling? That just ain't right to me. The reason why I love XF so much is because THEY WERE ALWAYS ABLE TO STRIKE THAT BALANCE. Between amazing storytelling and Mulder and Scully's epic, I guess it's now canon to say love? (GOD, I bet you they had conversations in bed about the first time they knew they were it-- THE THOUGHT OF THAT MAKES ME REALLY HAPPY.)
Re: part two: re being a standalone film, seperate from mytharc
Date: 2008-07-27 07:43 pm (UTC)Hmmmmmm. On the one hand the ~theme~ of the 9th season was ~how the mytharc tears them apart~ (in a really stupid way) so I guess I can see how that developed into this we-aren't-alien-hunters-anymore thing but like... I don't know. I still have trouble buying that they've given up on something. Especially with the apocalypse imminent! I don't know. I am ALL FOR giving them a happy ending -- I always have been! -- but this didn't even feel like that? Scully was so SAD.
I keep thinking back to FtF, and how the overriding theme of that film was "If we quit, they win" as opposed to this "let's avoid the darkness!" stuff (although credit where credit is due: I loved Mulder's "Maybe the darkness finds us" line.) I... liked that so much better :(
But then this: After all the shit they've gone through, they've grown and changed and all they want is each other and nothing else matters? BECAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE TOO. I don't know. I'M SO TORN.
(GOD, I bet you they had conversations in bed about the first time they knew they were it-- THE THOUGHT OF THAT MAKES ME REALLY HAPPY.)
AHHHHHHHH I LOVE THIS THOUGHT. IT'S NOT JUST FANON ANYMORE??? oh my god.
Re: part two: re being a standalone film, seperate from mytharc
Date: 2008-07-27 11:45 pm (UTC)I agree. Even if it's felt like the whole world was against them and they had no way out and no way of ever overcoming the evil, THEY STILL TRUDGED ON. They still did their damnedest to make a difference and expose the truth and live up to the ideals they most cherished. As much as I love the idea of ~love conquering all~ I expected that to happen in the wonderfully non-traditional Mulder/Scully ways that we've come to know and love.
(And all of that kind of ties into your FtF comment as well)
I'M SO TORN.
I feel like I'm flip flopping more than a certain someone running for elected office.
AHHHHHHHH I LOVE THIS THOUGHT. IT'S NOT JUST FANON ANYMORE??? oh my god.
:D :D :D I really hope that my favorite writers ~*LOVED*~ the movie so we can get their fanfic to fill the gaping holes in our hearts.