Alex Cross
by Rebecca Hillary
Starring Tyler Perry, Ed Burns, Matthew Fox and Carmen Ejogo. Written by Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson. Directed by Rob Cohen. Produced by Bill Block, Steve Bocsi, Steve Bowen, Remington Chase, Randall Emmett, George Furla, Leopoldo Gout and Paul Hanson.
For a movie that's supposed to be thrilling and mysterious, Alex Cross ends up being incredibly boring. Any potentially engrossing elements dissipate before the beginning half of the move is over, and you're left wondering why you're still watching. The killer is figured out and de-mystified about ten minutes after he appears in the movie and the main characters lose everything that they're supposedly fighting for. So, what you're left with is a hollow tale of vengence that offers little insight to either the protagonist and the antagonist.
As Alex Cross, Perry is passible, but slightly less serious than you'd imagine. However, it's hard to tell what he's capable of as most of his corny actions and sayings are a product of the ridiculously juvenile script. Cross is a legend in the world of detectives, using his knowledge of psychology to accurately read people – he can calculate things like what his wife has done all day and where she went after she left work – but you never actually learn who he is or what his motivations are as he's almost made into a gimmick in the film. This causes problems when he interacts with the also underdeveloped "Picasso" (Fox), the crazed serial killer he's investigating who, we know nothing about besides his love for torture (he paralyzes his victims and makes them watch as he slowly harms them) and the two have almost zero chemistry together. As Cross gets closer to him, he unknowingly puts himself and those around him in jeopardy, forcing him to re-evaluate his skills and the values he lives by.
The outcome of this movie is perhaps the most baffling, however, with an anti-climactic twist that would make more sense had it been more developed throughout the film. It's as though the director and writer had an intricate story fleshed out and forgot to present the audience with vital elements of the plot that would later develop into this ending, making what is supposed to be clever filmmaking seem more like messy afterthoughts.
© 2013
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