Buy it... if you're such a devoted fan of the franchise that even a faint whisper of what once made the episodic Mark Snow scores so attractive will suffice for nostalgic purposes.

Avoid it... if you were hoping that Snow would, outside of the last moments of the score, neatly wrap the music for the franchise into a coherent and impressive package.

Snow

The X-Files: I Want to Believe: (Mark Snow) Oh, so very, very sad. It's painful to see such a great franchise die like this. Six years too late and languishing at the box office, The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a ghostly reminder of better times for FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Creator Chris Carter's awkward resurrection of the franchise has even devoted fans of the concept scratching their heads, wondering why such a lousy script, one that largely ignores the show's narrative, was chosen for this film. Expectations have always been high when a story from this franchise is developed; the show's history on television thrived on solid writing, intriguing mysteries, and a developing chemistry between the two leads, all of which is absent in The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Stuck in the middle of this mess is composer Mark Snow, whose contribution to the 202 television episodes and previous motion picture have always maintained a consistent level of quality, even in the music's more ambient incarnations. The show's soundtracks began to adopt a more dramatically harmonic stance by the final four years, especially in the eighth season. For the most part, Snow uses The X-Files: I Want to Believe to continue that trend, with the composer balancing the darker, expected ambient droning with lovely, though still underplayed melodies for both the leading couple and other situations in the film. Fans of Snow's really hard-edged music for the early seasons of "The X-Files" will find plenty of material to their liking here (due to a very long album release), and those searching for the kind of beautiful solace heard in the episodes "Within" and "Without" from the opening of the eighth season will hear an extension of the haunted female vocals here as well. There are even a few passages pulled from the score for The X-Files: Fight the Future. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Snow's work here is the relatively small role for the franchise's title theme, as well as an inability to tie up all the loose ends he introduces and create a sturdy, overarching identity for the film. The lack of the title theme is somewhat forgivable, since this film really doesn't deal with the alien conspiracy elements of the show, but the lack of cohesiveness in the work restrains it to only average ranks.

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Starting with the familiar elements first, Snow's famous title theme never receives a full performance on the film's album. In fact, only fragments of the theme's easily recognizable opening six-note progression are used until the final cue, "Home Again." Even here, the use is fleeting, and Snow sends off the last moments of the score with one last, surprisingly pleasant whistled phrase from the theme. Otherwise, the only continuity you hear in The X-Files: I Want to Believe exists in the general stylistic similarities of the brooding atmosphere and the cue "The Trip to DC," which adapts the "Crossroads" cue from the previous film score and gives it a far more robust orchestral ostinato to carry its impressive progressions. This vigorous orchestral stature is only heard in this cue, "Foot Chase," and the opening "Moonrise," which is an extreme disappointment given its aggressive attitude in performance. Two new themes are introduced. First, Mulder and Scully receive a love theme, heard on solemn piano and woodwinds in "Good Luck" and more extensively in "Home Again." The character of a sick boy in the film receives an even more tender theme in "Ybara the Strange/Waterboard" and "The Surgery." The latter cue offers the theme in a beautiful combination of solo cello and boy's vocals. The female vocals, starting in "Father Joe" and continuing through the last cue, are a more recognizable element from the show, and are splendid in each of their uses. Otherwise, the remainder of the score leaves little to get excited about. There is a healthy dose of slashing and crashing, as well as several cues of extended minimalistic droning. Boring cues like "The Preparation" and "The Axe Post" are useless outside of the context of the film and are proof that the album for The X-Files: I Want to Believe is indeed too long. Another difficulty with the album is the inclusion of the three wretched songs at the end. They have no stylistic connection to Snow's score and appeal to a completely different audience. Hearing Snow mangle his theme in the first of these three tracks is irritating, especially when the theme wasn't too creatively integrated into the actual underscore. Overall, there are three outstanding cues in this score ("The Trip to DC," "The Surgery," and "Home Again"), but otherwise it's not even very effective for nostalgic purposes, just like the film. A wasted opportunity all around. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download