All in all, it wasn’t the worst idea in the world to reboot Alex Cross, the detective-come-psychologist from James Patterson’s popular novels. After all, he’s a reasonably interesting character with a fanbase, and it’s been years since Morgan Freeman brought him to life in big-screen adaptations Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider. But instead of the thinky, psychological crime thriller it should have been, Rob Cohen’s Alex Cross offers a lifeless and generic actioner. A prequel, origin story and a ‘name’ movie (where the movie is simply the character’s name), it ticks a lot of boxes, but fails on all accounts. Indeed, it’s so devoid of inspiration that you find yourself wondering what the point of it is. Matthew Fox deserves credit for an impressive physical transformation as our killer-du-jour and Alex Perry isn’t awful as the titular hero, but they’re unable to elevate a dull, by-the-numbers script. You get better on TV nowadays.
