Lead cast: William Hope, Christa Campbell, Patrick
Muldoon, Sydney Sweeney; Direction: Tibor
Takas; Screenplay: Joseph Farragia,
Tibor Takas, Boaz Davidson; Running Time:
89 minutes; Location: New York; Genre: Sci-fi/thriller
Technical Assessment: 2.5
Moral Assessment: 3
CINEMA Rating: V14
MTRCB Rating: PG13
In a usual busy day in New York, a piece of Russian spacecraft
crashes into the subway tunnel putting into halt the rush hour operations. Transit supervisor Jason Cole (Patrick Muldoon)
and his team work to put the train back on track until one of the transit
employees mysteriously dies supposedly of electrocution. As Cole investigates
further, the government teams up with a Russian scientist to recover the queen
spider egg that came with the spacecraft. Apparently, the Russians developed a
military weapon by cultivating mutant indestructible spiders that grow up to 60
feet long. Overnight, the spiders mutate and become giant creatures destroying
the city while the US military unleash a deadly virus story to cover up their
intentions of gaining control of the queen spider. While all of these are
happening Jason and his estranged wife Rachel (Christa Campbell) fight their
way to rescue their 12 year old daughter and rekindle their love for each
other.
There are many things wrong with this movie. First, it starts off
interestingly until the real plot unfolds and everything falls apart because
audiences discover the very thin plot jammed between very poor performances.
The storyline is too cliché and predictable. The protagonists are irritating
with Muldoon's cardboard acting and Campbell's constant wailing. While the
improved and modern effects give the movie a sense of realism and the
surprisingly well-crafted scoring make viewers believe the film is engrossing,
it still falls short of being entertaining after the first 10 minutes. Sadly,
it tries to add drama and empathy to the father-daughter and husband-wife
relationships but these are delivered too poorly to be appreciated.
The biggest saving grace of Spiders
is its efforts to show how the worst of situations bring out the best in
people. Jason and Rachel's love for their daughter and of each other taught
them to set aside their professional and personal conflicts and work together
to survive. There is a very subtle hint of keeping the marriage intact and
valuing the family above everything. If only the movie was better presented
then these messages could have had the desired impact. However, several scenes that
are too violent, gory and unsuitable for very young children will be better
remembered than the underlying message. Hence, CINEMA thinks Spiders is for older bored young
adults.
