The definitive American television series of the 1990s. The X-Files
comes to the big screen with an anticlimactic whimper. And how could it
be otherwise? Why should material so perfectly realised in one medium
necessarily translate well into another? The series is crisply and
thoughtfully executed in just about every detail, but the heart of its
appeal lies in the elegant handling of complicated and evolving ongoing
story lines, which is not something movies are especially good at. The
big-screen drive for closure cramps the creative style, though it may
also help nonfans get a grip on the proceedings. We do get some
invigorating thrills and chills, however, and a more satisfying sense of
the scale of an all-enveloping human-alien conspiracy than ever before,
but there's no more plot development here than in an average two-part
season-ending. FBI black sheep Mulder and Scully have been temporarily
transferred from the X-Files project to an anti-terrorist unit to
investigate an Oklahoma City-style bombing.