Alex Cross

   

     In the early nineties James Patterson introduced a character that would become very popular for readers. The novel was called “Along Came a Spider”, where we first meet Detective Alex Cross. Eighteen novels and two films later, we have gotten to know Detective Cross very well. After an eleven year absence from the big screen, Detective Cross is back and there is something different about him. 

     For starters Detective Cross is now played by Tyler Perry, yes the same Tyler Perry who has created a film empire playing everyone’s favorite grandmother. Perry plays Cross as he is at a crossroads, where he is deciding his career future. He is a Detroit detective who has a team who always seems to solve the cases that need to be solved. His partner and friend since kindergarten, Tommy (Ed Burns) plays the perfect counterpart to Cross. Everything in Detroit is not well though. Cross is called in on a case that is more disturbing than most; who he thinks was committed by one man. That man is Picasso (Matthew Fox), who has a thing for torture and drawing. After Cross stops his next planned crime, Picasso takes it personal and hits Cross in a way to make him suffer. With that Cross plans to stop Picasso at all cost and with him his plans.

   It almost seems like this character has faded from most people’s mind. There are still plenty of novels written about the character, but after two films within a few years of each other, why such a gap? Tyler Perry does a great job of stepping into Morgan Freeman’s shoes as Patterson’s star detective. The film adds more action than the first two films, but you would expect that from a film directed by Rob Cohen (xXx, The Fast and the Furious). The story doesn’t follow the book well and is definitely made for the big screen. The movie is entertaining for the most part, but has a few plot points that get left unresolved. I think it is good to reintroduce a good character like Alex Cross back into the world of movies. There is so much source material and so many stories you can do with him. Unfortunately they did not bring him back with a bang, but not exactly at a whimper either. I would like to see Perry come back as Cross, but with a better story, because this is one character that deserves another chance.

Brian Taylor