Interesting news: a new X-Files movie is being filmed, and, according to series creator Chris Carter, they won’t be doing the mind-numbingly dumb alien conspiracy thread that got so twisted and self-contradictory that even Fox News wouldn’t be able to defend it.
“We spent a lot of time on (the mythology) and wrapped up a lot of threads” when the show went off the air in 2002, says Chris Carter, creator of the series and director of the new movie. “We want a stand-alone movie, not a mythology conspiracy one.”
Well, good. I stopped watching the series when it became clear that Carter had no idea where the story was going, and in fact I was so soured by the experience I haven’t watched any TV series where this was also obvious ("Lost", comes to mind… and I started watching "Heroes" only reluctantly, and look what happened there in the second series… barf). I loved many of the standalone-plotted episodes, and would equally love to see a full-length movie where a plot like that was really carried out, and not suddenly resolved like a few of them were.
Also, seeing Scully and Mulder together again… cool. I really liked their characters and their interactions, and of course I am but a mortal man, and Scully is teh hawt.
X-Files, Star Trek… lots of interesting movies coming out soon! And of course, Cloverfield opens tomorrow. I’ll get a review up as soon as I humanly can.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Speaking of Trek, the Enterprise has been officially unveiled!
http://www.aolcdn.com/aolmovies/star-trek-uss-enterprise-full
January 17th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Hey, speaking of Trek, the new Enterprise has just been unveiled!
http://trekmovie.com/2008/01/17/first-official-picture-of-the-uss-enterprise/
January 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Personally, I’m anxiously awaiting Ender’s Game.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Well, I just have one thing to say. “Lost” made a real comeback for me in the last 5 episodes of Season 3. I think its creators were somewhat “lost” (hehe) for a while there, most likely having to do with the fact that they’re committed to creating 6 seasons of the show, and hence they have to stretch it to its extremes, I think… want to believe… that they DO have a pretty good idea where the story is going, and will deliver us to a TV drama nirvana at the end
January 17th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
And there are still rumors that somebody’s going to do A Princess of Mars. I just hope they keep to the old Percival Lowell Mars… John Carter fighting green Martian warriors on a freezing cold desert with almost no air just wouldn’t be the same.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I also thought Lost was, but the final episodes of season 3 made me think they might actually have something from the beginning. Sure they are stretching the whole thing, probably like RawheaD said before me, but if you go back and watch the first few episodes, you will notice that almost every character (from their group) existed since then and some of those are “known” actors that are not just extras.
Anyway, back to X-Files, I loved the show when it started but it then got too stretched out and they were trying to put every conspiracy or weird theory out there.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I admit, I’m a sucker for all of these shows. Even when I have my doubts that the story is going anywhere, I enjoy the journey. I hope, maybe naively, that Abrams has the rest of Lost mapped out. Heroes is plain old comic book fun, even if it doesn’t always make sense. I even liked the whole conspiracy-alien thing on X-Files. Each episode was 60 minutes of coolness, followed by one minute of shoulder shrugging. A pretty good ratio, if you ask me.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I just want an explanation of how Mulder and Scully went from being stranded in the middle of Antarctica with no vehicle or protective gear, to DC in the first movie.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I watched the whole first season of Lost in a 3 days. It was so compelling and dramatic, I couldn’t stop watching. After I took a break before the 2nd season came out on DVD, I decided to stop. Nothing happened. At some point in the past, writers realized they could keep an audience by stringing us along, and they wouldn’t actually have to have any idea where they were going. X-Files, I believe, went that route after a few seasons. Lost began with that premise. Once the show is over, and there’s agreement that it in fact had a destination, I’ll consider watching it on DVD.
As for X-Files, I’m excited to see it. I loved the show, and would love to see David Duchovney and Gillian Anderson together again. Especially if they work in a bit about what happened in the past several years (they’re noticeably older, after all).
January 17th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
So long as they keep their “baby” with the sitter! A story line I could have definitely lived without!
January 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Two things. First, I think the main question on everyone’s mind concerning a new X-Files movie is “will Scully still be hot?”. Secondly, how freaking cool is it that they are making Ender’s Game into a movie. I just read it about two weeks ago and LOVED it.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I’m surprised to hear that a scientist likes the X-Files, in which the paranormal, not-rooted-in-science explanation always turns out to be the correct one.
I, too, liked the stand-alone episodes, but those were always marginally plausible. The whole “abducted by aliens” storyline reached a point where I couldn’t suspend enough disbelief.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Sorry, but I think you’re being a little shallow about Lost and Heroes. They’re not perfect, but they’re still better than most piffle on TV even at their lowest points.
I don’t get the whole “nothing happened” attitude about Lost. Did you people watch the same show I did? That’s *totally* a meme. Seriously, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you think *nothing* happened in season 2, you need to adjust your attention span or something. I think some of you would have wanted the new Galactica to reach Earth midway through scene 2 of the pilot episode.
In fact, I blame viewer attitudes like this for the extreme lack of shows with interesting story arcs tying together a whole season. TV executives see the complaints from those who need instant gratification, and they give you more reality television. Gee, thanks. Oh well, it drives me away from the television, I suppose.
and will deliver us to a TV drama nirvana at the end
Not going to happen, and it’s silly to expect it. The fun of shows like these is the journey, not the destination. It’s almost impossible for the end to live up to viewer expectations, so you can’t rely on it. The end of season 1 of Heroes was lackluster, but I enjoyed the trip there, so overall I was happy.
Every episode can’t move the arc along. There are going to be standalone episodes because the shows are generally committed to a delivering certain number of episodes.
Patience is a virtue.
Personally, I’m anxiously awaiting Ender’s Game.
Personally, when it’s announced that a book is going to be made into a movie/miniseries/series, I’ve learned to have zero expectations. Look at what happened to Earthsea and I, Robot and Starship Troopers.
Hell, look what happened to the remake of Rollerball. Norman Jewison’s cautionary tale of ever escalating appetites for violence in a neofeudalistic corporate controlled future was completely defanged and intellectually raped by John McTiernan.
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a fracking brilliant comic/graphic novel by Alan Moore in top form. You’d never know that from the movie.
When they announced a while back that Zelazny’s “Amber” novels were optioned, I shuddered in fear. Thank goodness that seems to have gone away.
Ah, what’s the point…
January 17th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I’m surprised to hear that a scientist likes the X-Files, in which the paranormal, not-rooted-in-science explanation always turns out to be the correct one.
Uh, because it’s fantasy, and not the real world?
I’m a total skeptic but I like the show Medium. It’s well written, has good characters and the writers have set down a loose set of rules for her “powers” and have worked well within them. Each episode is a little puzzle. And I again reiterate that my total lust for Patrica Arquette has NOTHING to do with it.
What else are we not supposed to like? Lord Of The Rings! Wizards are impossible!
I, too, liked the stand-alone episodes, but those were always marginally plausible.
Really? Which one? The one where the mutant guy would eat livers and the cocoon himself away for several years? Maybe the one with the time traveling cruise ship? The shape shifter?
January 17th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Wow, QD you are in rare form!
January 17th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I’m with Phil, my favorite episodes of the X-Files were always quirky one-off episodes. I still think the baseball episode about the Negro Leagues was darn good television.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
RE: Scully’s hotness: I am one who thought that Gillian Anderson got gradually hotter as she got older. She’s showing her age now, but is still a lovely woman.
Re: Lost: I don’t think I caught the meme. I heard the 2nd season made some progress, but I’ve only seen the 1st season so far. Battlestar had a brilliant 1st season. The first half of the 2nd season dragged, but was cool at the halfway point, and then fell apart as far as I could tell. I don’t need them to reach Earth in the 1st season, but I need for a show to at least make some sort of real progress, and instead of constantly moving toward something ahead, you need to actually reach something before setting a new destination. There wasn’t even a destination, as far as I could tell, in Lost season 1.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: QD- you are correct. Too bad about the movie. No wonder Alan Moore won’t let them put his name on any more of his movies (such as the upcoming Watchmen).
Stand Alone Episodes: Yeah, those were some of my favorite. I think both approaches can make good shows. X-files was one of the only to pull off both (for a while, anyway).
January 17th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Phil I will be waiting for that Cloverfield review. I get to go see it on Saturday, and I have been looking forward to it so much that I have actually started dreaming about it.
Ps. In your review could you mention if it was hard to watch because of the shakiness?? I don’t want to be getting sick in the theater if it’s really bad.
PPs. Did you (or anyone) ever watch that Sunshine movie? I watched it last week and was just wondering what you thought about it.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
This is why I love Eureka – although there is a plot thread running right through it, most episodes are designed to stand on their own as well – and it’s pretty damn funny, too.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Hi Phil,
Check out the TV-shows “The 4400″ and “ReGenesis”.
Regards
Steven
January 17th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
QD,
The main thing that makes me look forward to the production of the Ender’s Game film is that they went through many different screenplays until Orson Scott Card (author of the novel) decided to write it himself. I agree that most screenplay adaptations leave much to be desired.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Steven, I saw ReGenesis and loved the first season, but I think the second season lost its way.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Richard Dawkins stomped on the show once in an interview, though I can’t come up with in which, because in the X-Files Universe woo-woo explanations always win, scientific explanations always lose. But I liked the show tremendously, although I stopped watching it too when the meta-story’s thread got seriously and irretrievably lost. And though I’m hetero and Scully is indeed “teh hawt,” I’m afraid I had rather a serious crush on Mulder …
… so I’m really looking forward to this new movie too.
^_^J.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I enjoy Lost so much that I don’t mind the slower episodes at all. I’ll be sad to see it end in 6 seasons. BTW, the writers have said that now that they know the end point they have a pretty good outline of the story progression for each future season. As for Heroes, it was really hurt by the writer’s strike, they had to change alot to get some sort of conclusion before the strike.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I stopped watching the show after they killed off Mulder…. For the fifth time.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
You’re not actually thinking that Ender’s Game is ever going to actually get made, are you? Yeah, uh, don’t hold your breath.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Hollywood is also planning to release in 2008 and 2009 remakes of The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Birds. Yikes!
January 18th, 2008 at 4:48 am
The creators of Lost have always known how the story ends, all the major turning points along the way and how it all fits together. Their problem was not being able to know how long it would go for – how much story they could tell, how quickly to tell it, how much detail to add etc. Without wishing to insult those who don’t see it, I find it hard to comprehend how this is not obvious – every time something new/big unfolds, you can suddenly see how the foundations for it were laid, usually a long, long way back.
(Bet you didn’t see the comments being turned into a Lost-fest at the merest mention…
)
January 18th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Sean: According to Chris Carter, Mulder had extra cans of gasoline attached to the back of the snow tractor. So after dragging Scully back to the truck, he filled up and headed back to civilization.
I’ll buy that, but it still wasn’t good filmmaking.
Also, once I realized that Chris had no idea where the story was going, I stopped watching the series. Maybe this film will work out, but I don’t know.
January 18th, 2008 at 6:17 am
I very much liked the movies I, Robot, Starship Troopers, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The trick is to stop expecting the movies to be true to the books. Hollywood doesn’t work that way. The only case I know of where a movie stuck reasonably close to the book was Rosemary’s Baby, and that was in, what, 1968? Heck, my favorite movie of all time is the 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Jules Verne sure wouldn’t have recognized that one.
January 18th, 2008 at 6:19 am
[[Richard Dawkins stomped on the show once in an interview, though I can’t come up with in which, because in the X-Files Universe woo-woo explanations always win, scientific explanations always lose. ]]
As far as I have been able to determine from lab tests, Richard Dawkins is chemically free from any trace of a sense of humor.
January 18th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Like Schmoo said,
The creators of LOST had the entire series mapped out before the show even went on the air. In the last 2 seasons, they had no concept of when the show would end so they had to add some filler into it that didn’t really add anything to the show.
Now that LOST has a definite end date, the creators can properly create the shows without the filler. I’m not getting my hopes up for TV nirvana, but I definitely think LOST will be better than ever from here on out.
So tune in again Phil!!
January 18th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Wow, QD you are in rare form!
Thanks. Wait… is that good?
very much liked the movies I, Robot, Starship Troopers, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The trick is to stop expecting the movies to be true to the books.
I just don’t understand the point of taking something people liked, and converting it into something completely different and inferior. They use the name just to get people into the theaters. It’s a cheap trick.
In the case of those three films, the stories were completely dumbed down. Troopers became “Our Fascist Future!”. I, Robot because a Wil Smith product placement extravaganza. League was the worst. In the book, Mina Murray was in charge (and wasn’t a vampire) of the group and Quatermain was a drugged out sot she had to drag out of an opium den in Cairo. You just know some tie wearing pinhead at the studio said, “Oh, my, we can’t have the woman in charge.”
Richard Dawkins stomped on the show once in an interview, though I can’t come up with in which, because in the X-Files Universe woo-woo explanations always win, scientific explanations always lose.
Well, I guess it’s a good idea neither Fox nor the shows creators ever tried to sell it as a science show, then!
Seriously, I am uberskeptic, but I DO NOT GET that attitude. It’s a science fantasy show. It’s make believe. As much as I respect the man for his works, I’m detecting a level of OCD or something.
until Orson Scott Card decided to write it himself.
Hmm. Maybe there’s hope then.
They’re going to need a “Crying Game” style disclaimer at the start to warn audiences not to reveal the ending.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:19 am
“until Orson Scott Card decided to write it himself.”
Well, Neil Gaiman helped write the screenplay for Stardust, and the movie still fell way short of the book.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Don’t watch Lost but I think more shows should have an actual ending planned and know where they’re going. It’d be good for the networks and all involved to be able to say, “This is a 5 season show.” But the problem is the networks and advertisers don’t care about the story or plot. They just want ratings. So either you start getting into a story and they cancel it, or they drag it out for so long that it loses the reasons why you watched it to begin with.