ALEX CROSS

When I was a teenager I was addicted to James Patterson's Alex Cross novels. His chapters were only 3-5 pages long and it made reading easy. There's 20 books in the series and so far only 3 films have been made... but none have hit the mark! Morgan Freeman has been replace by Tyler Perry and here lies the first mistake. Perry is radically miscast and his performance is wooden and shallow. Morgan Freeman tapped into the essence of Alex Cross which allowed his performance to carry what were otherwise average thrillers. The second mistake and arguably the biggest was that this new movie bares little resemblance to the book it's based on. I have a very liberal view on books being turned into movies and I understand and respect the need to make fundamental changes to the material, however, in this case the screenplay is so far removed from the book that its absurd. I don't understand why either because the books are best sellers and a proven formula. What's transpired on the screen here is almost a retelling of the previous movie, Along Came A Spider. So many similarities and nothing original. The screenplay is terrible and the timeline is fucked. Matthew Fox does make an affective villain but he's been given such a cliched character to work with that it just comes off stupid. Another major flaw is the American PG-13 rating (Aussie M). All of the action sequences are edited down to the point that you have to strain to actually find the action. The camera flinches from contact and distorts at the notion of being graphic. I'm really bummed out to see the Alex Cross character being disrespected like this. Sadly another film has already been announced with Tyler Perry returning. Shit! Please bring back Freeman or perhaps turn to Idris Elba (if he'll have ya) who was originally signed to star but was cast aside for Madea... err... sorry, I mean Perry.

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