BY GLENN WHIPP >Film Critic

When we last left Mulder and Scully six years ago, the FBI agents were sharing a hotel room in Roswell, N.M., talking about aliens and the afterlife while hiding from the authorities. Their fate - as well as that of several other characters - was left unresolved in the 2002 finale of the ninth and final season of "The X-Files."

Six years later, and a decade after the lone "X-Files" movie, series creator Chris Carter has brought the characters back in "The X-Files: I Want to Believe."

When asked if the film would resolve any of the many loose ends left hanging all those years ago, Carter couldn't resist a plug, replying cryptically, "I want to believe."

Truthfully, so do the (remaining) fans of the series. Carter had the idea for a second movie in hand five years ago, but legal entanglements with Fox prevented him from going ahead.

"Any time you have something with 10 years of history, you've got 10 years of negotiations that have to be gone through," Carter says.

"Call it sedimentary layers of negotiations. My only frustration was that Fox and I didn't see eye to eye on certain profit participation."

But Carter thinks the delay worked to the project's advantage, believing that the passing years have built an interest in seeing a new chapter in the series.

"It helped renew my appetite, I know that," Carter says. "Any more time, though, and it might have waned. Basically, for Fox, it was now or never."

Given that it has been 16 years since "The X-Files" first debuted, Carter won't be leaning heavily on the show's mythology in the new film.

Instead, the movie will feature a suspenseful, stand-alone story, taking place in present time and ... well, that's about all Carter will divulge about a plot he has gone to "devious" lengths to keep secret. How devious?

That set photo of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson kissing? Bogus.

"I'll share one thing: This won't be `When Mulder Met Scully,' " Carter says.

>Glenn Whipp