Fight the Future

[ivyfic]

I rewatched the X-Files movie over the weekend. The first X-Files episode I saw was "Jose Chung's from Outer Space," but I think the second thing I saw was Fight the Future. Needless to say, it didn't make a whole lot of sense (take that, Frank "it's a good story even for people who've never heard of the X-Files" Spotnitz). I distinctly remember my brother telling me that the Lone Gunmen were recurring characters.

moonlightalice is right. They answered all the questions. No more mysteries. There's a scene where Well-Manicured Man tells Mulder everything. And then Mulder sees an alien spaceship and how this virus is working… The end, right? Really. This is the end.

What bothered me is that at the end of the movie, Mulder's like, "We're back where we started! We are no closer to the truth!" Bwah? You know the truth. How has this not changed your perspective? Okay, he doesn't have the proof to bring down the global conspiracy, but there's a fundamental problem here. Mulder just learned that the end of the human race will happen in his lifetime when the aliens return to colonize and that humanity's only hope is this conspiracy. If we're talking about every human life on the planet, experimenting on a few hundred or even a few million seems like a small price to pay. I mean, it's a classic moral predicament. I don't expect Mulder to immediately join forces with the Cigarette Smoking Man, but now that he knows what's at stake, how can he not change his perspective at all? I feel like his quest should now be "fight the coming invasion," not "find the truth."

I also have to say that whole speech about how FEMA is the real government and they're going to swoop in and take over and turn the country into a totalitarian state is a whole lot less menacing after Katrina.

Comments

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

Word.

Can we have an X-Files viewing/discussion party? I LOVE arguing this stuff. Seriously though, I have NO IDEA WHY the show continued after the movie. EVERYTHING IS ANSWERED. All that's left is fighting the invasion, which would of course turn XF into a totally different kind of show. But noooooooooo they drag it out for more seasons with stupid "revelations"--they were the original Earth inhabitants! Who the hell cares! What about the colonization!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Can we have an X-Files viewing/discussion party?

Only if someone sits down and explains the damn mythology to me. I lost track of it before the movie. I'm hopeless. I always liked the monsters of the week better than "ooh, aliens!" This is probably because finding the monstrous among us is way easier to relate to (like that episode where the guy's boss was a bug eating people's souls? AWESOME).

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

That's "Folie a Deux" and only one of my two most favorite episodes.

I can explain the mythology to you, as it was explained on the show, but it doesn't actually work with all of the continuity. Trying to figure that out makes head go boom.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Heh. moonlightalice is currently explaining all this to me to the best of her ability to make sense of the senseless. I'll let you know how that goes.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'm up for X-Files hanging out. Though I've just rewatched the first five seasons and the movie in the last year and I'm guessing a season seven marathon would not be a good thing.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

I'm rewatching the series with wellgull and we're up to Season 5. I watched the show through Season 7 and then quit. I never actually saw what happened (though I of course heard about it later). I don't think I missed much.

We could always replay some our favorites, or least favorites (as a drinking game?).

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I could do that, especially if there's a newbie in the crowd. Always more fun with a newbie.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

Yeah he's watching this for the first time. I only have DVDs through Season 5, so I'd have to get the rest of the series on Netflix anyway.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I own up through season seven (the Mulder years).