Anybody seen X-Files: I Want to Believe?

I came across a short piece about the spiritual underpinnings of the new X-Files movie. I don’t know whether it’s an accurate interpretation or not as I haven’t seen the film, so I’m asking you: what, if anything, does this latest installment have to say about faith and science?

I was a big fan of The X-Files back in the 90s, and was frequently impressed by its earnest and occasionally nuanced exploration of the conflict between a faith-based worldview (Mulder and his ability to believe in most anything) and Scully’s scientific, agnostic worldview (capable of clinging to scientific explanations far beyond the point of reason). I liked that the show tried to depict each worldview respectfully, and over the course of the series pitted each character up against challenges that threatened their particular understanding of the cosmos. I wouldn’t describe the show’s spiritual themes as particularly deep; it never got much more specific than “faith vs. science”—but at the time there weren’t many other shows exploring that theme with the same earnestness.

So if you’ve seen the movie—does it pick up the “conflict of worldviews” theme that the old show nurtured? Does it have anything useful to add to the ongoing debate about religious faith and science? And does it dare to get more specific about what a faith-centered life looks like?

Or is it just another bit of summer entertainment?