Along Came a Spider Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Along Came a Spider Blu-ray Movie Review

. . . and Spun a Web Full of Holes

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 16, 2015

The success of Kiss the Girls made it inevitable that Morgan Freeman would return to the screen in the role of forensic psychologist Alex Cross, especially since there was no shortage of additional novels from author James Patterson. Producers David Brown and Joe Wizan settled on Patterson's first book featuring the so-called Doctor Detective, Along Came a Spider, but that book presented many more challenges for a film adaptation than Kiss the Girls. For one thing, Cross was in his thirties in both stories. Aging him to suit Freeman wasn't a big challenge for Girls, but Spider was another matter altogether. In the film's chaste flirtation that occurs between Freeman's Cross and the much younger Secret Service agent played by Monica Potter, you can spot traces of the romantic relationship that the characters shared in the book. Otherwise, the interpersonal dynamic in the film had to be re-imagined.

The criminal schemes, too, had to be revised. Patterson's plot was multilayered and far too complex for a 100-minute film. The job of streamlining it was assigned to screenwriter Marc Moss, who would return eleven years later to co-write another Patterson adaptation, Alex Cross, starring Tyler Perry. The producers of Cross should have paid closer attention to how Moss handled Spider. In condensing Patterson's story, he neglected to consider whether the abridgement made sense, leading Roger Ebert to ask, in reviewing Spider, "since Dr. Alex Cross is so brilliant, how come he doesn't notice yawning logical holes in the very fabric of the story he's occupying?" Like Ebert in his review, I have to avoid specifying these holes to prevent spoilers. The director, Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day ), does distract from many of the problems with skillfully mounted set pieces, but as soon as the movie ends, you start asking questions for which the script has no answers—and on a second viewing, the whole thing falls apart.

In Kiss the Girls, Alex Cross (Freeman) carried the personal baggage of having a family member's life at risk. In Along Came a Spider, he carries the weight of guilt over a sting operation that, in the film's opening sequence, goes horribly wrong and results in the death of a fellow cop. Eight months later, Cross remains at home on personal leave. His sister, Vickie (Anna Maria Horsford), mother of the niece whom Cross was searching in Kiss the Girls, tells him to forgive himself, but he can't.

Cross is thrown back into the fray by a call from the Kidnapper, as I'll call him, since he has several names. Played by Michael Wincott (The Crow), who specializes in evil with a grin, the Kidnapper has snatched 12-year-old Megan Rose (Mika Boorem) right from under her Secret Service protection at an exclusive private school for the offspring of government leaders and foreign officials, including the Russian president's son, Dmitri, who is played by an 11-year-old Anton Yelchin, the future Lt. Chekhov in the current Star Trek films. Megan is the daughter of Congressman Hank Rose and his wife Elizabeth (Michael Moriarty and Penelope Ann Miller). The Kidnapper's brazen and carefully planned abduction does not seem to be about money. He doesn't even demand a ransom, at least initially. Numerous references to the infamous Lindbergh baby kidnapping suggest that the Kidnapper's motive is notoriety. To ensure his place in the history books, he telephones Cross and teases him into the case.

The FBI agent in charge of recovering Megan, Ollie McArthur (Dylan Baker), is understandably suspicious of Cross's involvement, given that the Kidnapper has requested it, but the Congressman and his wife insist that Cross remain on the case. Another party eager for his participation is Secret Service agent Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter), who headed protection services for children at the school. Cross has already been informed by his old FBI buddy, Kyle Craig (Jay O. Sanders, in a cameo), that Jezzie and another Secret Service agent, Ben Devine (Billy Burke), will probably be the scapegoats for Megan's kidnapping.

As Cross and Jezzie work with the FBI to analyze evidence at the crime scene, including the contents of Megan's classroom computer, the Kidnapper's motives become more and more muddied. His goals are no better illuminated by his behavior with Megan, who is being held captive on a boat at sea. Indeed, the inconsistencies in the Kidnapper's goals and behaviors are among the biggest flaws in Along Came a Spider for reasons that cannot be explained here except to say that, in order to manufacture opportunities for confrontation, suspense and near misses with law enforcement, the screenplay keeps having the Kidnapper act in a way that's the opposite of how he's described (i.e., cool, meticulous and brilliant).

But that's the essential problem of the whole film. Marc Moss's script routinely requires characters to behave in ways contrary to their nature as previously established. In life, and even in serious drama, people can be multilayered, contradictory and full of loose ends and erratic conduct. In a thriller, however, it's simply cheating to have someone previously identified as smart and observant lapse into indifferent stupidity at just the right moment when the plot needs him or her to overlook something. If a writer can't think of a better way to get from A to B, then it's time to rethink the narrative, even when you have a director like Tamahori, who can keep the audience distracted with a tautly shot action sequence, or a star like Freeman, whose gravitas can convince viewers to take the entire silly thing seriously, at least until the credits roll.

Along Came a Spider Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Along Came a Spider was shot by Matthew F. Leonetti, whose extensive credits include Star Trek: First Contact and the eagerly-anticipated-on-Blu-ray Rush Hour 2. The cinematography is similar to that of Kiss the Girls in the use of anamorphic lenses and a 2.39:1 frame, but Leonetti lights for sharper contrast, and the effect better suits Spider's predominance of urban landscapes and interiors.

The vintage of the transfer used for Paramount's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is unknown, though it is at least several years old, but Leonetti's photographic style usually translates well to Blu-ray, and Spider is no exception. The image is detailed without obvious signs of untoward digital manipulation, and it is also sharp, with due account taken for the inherent limitations on the depth of field of anamorphic lenses. Except in the opening prologue, which involves the pursuit of a sexual predator, the film's palette heavily favors grays, whites and blues, probably because the crimes in Spider are meant to involve extreme calculation and have very little passion behind them. Cross, by contrast, tends to dress in earth tones. However intellectual he may be, he is usually the warmest presence in the room. Blacks are very good; a night encounter on the water between the Kidnapper and the Coast Guard provides a fine demonstration of how to arrange a few isolated light sources in deep pools of darkness.

Paramount has mastered this Warner-distributed disc with an average bitrate of 33.96 Mbps, which is certainly enough bandwidth, and the compression appears to have been capably performed.

Along Came a Spider Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 soundtrack for Along Came a Spider, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, gets off to a dramatic start with the opening pursuit involving multiple vehicles, a helicopter, gunfire and a waterfall at a dam. The sonic assault matches the emotional tragedy that sends Alex Cross into semi-retirement. By the time the film ends, director Tamahori has staged numerous other elaborate action sequences that place equal demands on the sound editors, most of which cannot be described without major spoilers. They include Megan's initial abduction; her recapture after an attempted escape; an encounter between law enforcement and the Kidnapper in a torrential downpour; an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse on the D.C. Metro train; and another one in a remote country barn. Each of these involves different points of view that switch back and forth, often very quickly, with sonic signatures to match. The dynamic range is broad throughout, and the sounds that need to register forcefully make the appropriate impact. The dialogue always remains clear. The late Jerry Goldsmith supplied one of his incomparably urgent action scores, which helps distract from the film's improbabilities.

Along Came a Spider Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The disc has no extras. Paramount's 2001 DVD had a behind-the-scenes featurette and a trailer.

Along Came a Spider Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Despite being a weaker film, Along Came a Spider did twice the box office of Kiss the Girls, presumably on the strength of Morgan Freeman's ever-growing popularity. It's certainly Freeman who deserves the credit, because unlike his previous Alex Cross film, Spider did not benefit from a strong leading lady. Monica Potter had previously appeared in such supporting roles as Nicolas Cage's anxious wife in Con Air, where she failed to make a strong impression, and the same is true of her Secret Service agent in Spider. Even with the novel's romantic relationship between Cross and Jezzie Flannigan removed, Jezzie is meant to supply a companion to Cross in regret and remorse, after young Megan is kidnapped on her watch. Next to a talented pro like Freeman, Potter barely registers, and when the machinations of the plot require more from her, she evaporates. For fans of the film, Paramount's Blu-ray of Along Came a Spider will do, but it's not a film that improves with age.