A Tale of Two Movies

DARK KNIGHT is being hailed as the best superhero movie in existence.

It's not.

THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is being trashed as too little, too late.

It might be.

SPOILERS LURK BELOW - go away if you don't wanna know!

I've held off for a couple of weeks on writing about DARK KNIGHT. I've seen it twice - not because it's a masterpiece, but more to confirm my initial reaction. The film's just too darn long.

Heath Ledger gives a masterful performance. The dedication to him in the end credits made me tear up - twice. But the Joker is not the problem here - it's Harvey Dent.

The Joker's actions create Dent's villainous alter ego, Two Face. And this interpretation of the classic Batman baddie is miles better than Tommy Lee Jones' take.

The problem is, there's just too much of Dent, post-creation. Prior to his turning, the character of Harvey Dent still carries a great deal of the weight of this film - and it's wonderful. The idea that the Batman may finally have found a true hero for Gotham is exceptional. That Batman is eager to retire and turn his beloved city over to a civil servant willing to take on the bad guys is quite a departure from recent Bat-history.

But...

Once the Joker creates Two-Face, the film loses focus - and gains about a half hour of story that could have made for another exceptional film, had it not been so rushed. I would have much preferred saving Two-Face for a big reveal just before the end credits, rather than having the character intrude on the relationship between Joker and Batman.

As for Scully and Mulder... it struck me during my screening that this film felt like just another episode of the series. Not so great a notion for a movie - but I think it really says something about the incredible quality of the original source material.

Every episode of THE X-FILES was shot like a mini-movie. The series had a cinematic look that set it apart from other TV shows of the 1990's. We saw five solid years (and two lesser years) worth of creepy atmosphere,, monster-like humans and human-like monsters.

To take the series to the big screen requires a bigger scale, a bigger story and bigger danger. I WANT TO BELIEVE doesn't have any of that - and that's what's gone wrong.

What it does have is a lot of what made the series solid. Questions, not so many answers and personal quests.

It was great to drop in on the characters again, but moviegoers deserve a bit more.

The box office results have not been kind and that may mean be the end of Scully and Mulder, but that's probably how it should be.

The duo was very much a creation of the '90s - and their visit to the post-9/11 edition of the FBI underscores the passage of time with a pause in front of President Bush's photo. Our heroes are very much from a different time - a time when the worst monsters we could come up with weren't fanatical humans.

Today's world requires a different hero.

A silent guardian.

A watchful protector.

A dark knight.