Along Came a Spider

Plot

Detective Doctor Alex Cross is called into a new case, after Megan, the daughter of a state senator is kidnapped by her teacher. While helping the case, Cross discovers there is more to the case than he first thought.

Direction

There is some fairly basic direction, with nothing really standing out. There is some okay action scenes, and some fairly aggressive ‘through and through’ gunshot wounds that a few characters take. Considering the film that came before it, and Lee Tamahori’s previous work (Once were warriors, The Edge), I was a little dissatisfied.

Cast/Characters

Morgan Freeman returns in this sequel to Kiss the Girls as Alex Cross (ironically, the book ACaS was book #1 and KtG was book #2). He is joined by new cast members Monica Potter who plays a secret service agent Jezzie Flannigan, and Michael ‘the voice’ Wincott – who plays the primary antagonist Gary Soneji – who kidnaps the child.

Secondary cast members of note are the late Anton Yelchin in one of his earliest roles as one of Megan’s school friends; Penelope Ann Miller as Megan’s mother (who is written poorly from the novel version) is underused, Jay O Sanders who returns for one scene, and Dylan Baker who plays an FBI boss is good.

Screenplay/Setting

Having read the source material prior to watching the movie, I felt that there were pros and cons within the screenplay. I preferred Morgan Freeman’s version of Alex Cross as he was more seasoned than the novel version. I also liked that his being older took away the potential ‘love interest’ story-point between Alex and Jezzie.

I found it a bit convoluted in how Alex gets literally called into the case. It felt un-organic and rushed.

One big issue I had was that it stole from other movies – most notably the phone call run around sequence which is a rip off of Dirty Harry.

Score/Soundtrack

The score is fairly dramatic with the ‘thriller’ style – but some of these don’t correlate to the moments happening on screen. It is almost overused and done to force feelings on the viewer, something that I’ve mentioned before I dislike.

Overall

A bit of a letdown of a sequel – and pales in comparison to both its predecessor and the novel of the same name. This was Freeman’s last outing as Cross. For those who read the book, moments that happen in it, also somewhat occur in the film.

2.5/5