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The Girl in the Spider’s Web
(Columbia Pictures/MGM/Regency Enterprises)
By Lucas Allen
Continuing beyond Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” is the long-awaited followup to the 2011 American remakeof “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” using the same producers, but with different director and actors.
Instead of David Fincher, it’s acclaimed “Don’t Breathe” director Fede Alvarez bringing his own visual style to this dark and mysterious world. It’s also adapted from the novel of the same name by David Lagercrantz, who wrote additional novels taking place in the same universe after Larsson’s passing.
In Stockholm, notable hacker Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) is wanted by authorities, but still uses her expertise to help those who cannot help themselves out of a problem. She gets an assignment from an ex-NSA employee named Franz (Stephen Merchant) to steal cryptic information about his top secret project Firefall, which involves the military’s defense missiles.
But before she can encrypt the files after stealing them, a group of terrorists breaks into her apartment, steals the files and blows her place up. Though she survives, she’s now on the run and on her own looking for answers. With the help of her journalist friend Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason), Lisbeth starts her own investigation involving Firefall, Franz and his gifted son August (Christopher Convery).
Eventually, she learns that the people behind it all are part of a radical group, The Spiders, which has a goal of causing chaos. It also leads to an unexpected reunion with her long-lost sister, Camilla (Sylvia Hoeks).
With Fincher out of the director’s chair, Alvarez would have to step up his game using his keen eye for visual storytelling. For the most part, he succeeds in recapturing the earlier film’s dark, gritty feel using the snowy Stockholm locations as backdrop.
He also adds some exciting fight and chase sequences that helps keep the viewer entertained. Overall, he shows he can manage what he can create no matter the quality of the script he has to work with. Unfortunately, there is not much positives to say about the script.
While there was certainly some effort to try to make the story as interesting as possible, there are still some serious flaws that ruin it. The villains are bland, the interactions between Lisbeth and Mikael is lacking, and the plot shamelessly lifts from “Skyfall.” Once the third act becomes a Bond rip-off,all the good things about the previous Dragon Tattoo films disappear entirely.
t even has a similar main title sequence from the previous film that provokes Bond-like imagery, but is no longer fresh without “The Immigrant Song” playing. Some of the actors try their best, with Foy adding plenty of emotion and heroic courage to her solid performance in the lead role.
But then there’s Gudnason, who isn’t the right choice for the Mikael character previously played well by Bond himself, Daniel Craig. The character in the other movies was supposed to be an older person whose relationship with Lisbeth was more intense and affectionate. However, the script tones that down and make him younger, therefore making him utterly worthless.
American viewers who waited seven long years for another Dragon Tattoo movie will no doubt be sadly disappointment by “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.” It limps to the screen with great style but little substance to offer. If Stieg Larsson himself was alive today, he would’ve been horrified with what Hollywood ultimately undone his creation.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: PG-13 (for violence, language, and sexual content/nudity)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 2 Stars (Out of Four)
