The X-Files: I Want to Believe is an oddly timed attempt at re-launching a moderately profitable franchise, but it serves as a sad final nail in the coffin of this once hugely influential TV series. It is meant as a stand-alone thriller that does not require any previous knowledge of The X-Files, and, in a way, it is. There is a mystery to piece together and moments of palpable tension and dread, but something is decidedly missing for both sets of prospective moviegoers. Those unfamiliar with the 1993-2002 TV phenomenon that paved the way for shows like Lost or Heroes would go through a disorienting and subdued experience. The curiosity and even enthusiasm of the TV show’s fans will be let down by the feeling that Fox Mulder and Dana Scully have also spent six years apart, just like fans have from the show’s last episode. Their chemistry is gone, and with it so is the elusive magic that made The X-Files a cult classic. No, the film is not half bad, it is competent and even genuinely engrossing at times, but it never shrugs off the nagging feeling that there was no need for it.

There is a brilliant early scene where dozens of FBI agents march across a barren frozen field of snow. They follow a white-haired old man who at one point suddenly drops to his knees and screams that “this is the place”. A human arm is found; later on, other body parts are discovered too. The old man is Father Joe (Billy Connolly), a former priest and a convicted paedophile who seems to have psychic abilities. His help is enlisted when an FBI agent goes missing while the one-time agent Scully (Gillian Anderson) is recruited to involve Mulder (David Duchovny) who has also left the Bureau, albeit in more hostile circumstances because of his disturbing belief in all things paranormal. Scully does what she is asked to and gets involved herself, but she detests Father Joe’s crimes and suspects that he is a fraud. Mulder, on the other hand, keeps an open mind and this puts him at odds with his long-time partner. There might be a serial killer involved, there might be more sinister forces at play. There are also moments of flirtation with the supernatural, manifestations of evil that are creepy and haunting in ways that made thrillers work in the days when The X-Files ruled the TV screens. Now they may be nostalgically effective but they are also undeniably silly.

The best way to experience the film is to view it like an old-fashioned thriller of days long gone, but the nostalgia trip might not necessarily be what moviegoers seek. Fans of the TV show on the other hand will raise eyebrows time and again at the way the two leading characters have lost that intimate understanding and urgent need for each other. It seems that both Duchovny and Anderson have forgotten what it is to be Mulder and Scully and be onscreen together, which is bewildering at best and depressing at worst. The one character registering strongly is Father Joe. The charismatic Connolly makes him an intriguing figure who despises himself for his demons and has no pretence about the powers bestowed on him. All in all, one could do a lot worse than seeing this film, just as the filmmakers could have done a lot better than resurrecting a mythology that is best left in the past and in the memory.