The Girl in the Spider’s Web –
Movie Review 4 friends out of 10
Family Review Strong language, strong violence, adult themes
If you are a fan of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo novels and films, especially the Swedish versions, then I think you will be very disappointed with this fourth instalment in the Millenium trilogy.
Let me share some background to explain why. The Millenium trilogy was created by Swedish Writer, Stieg Larsson, who died prior to the first book being published. With Dragon Tattoo being acclaimed, the publishers then released Larsson’s remaining novels ‘…Playing with Fire’ and ‘…Hornets Nest’. Instead of allowing the trilogy to stand on its own, it was decided to use another writer to continue the series. While the names remain the same Lisabeth and Bloomkvist no longer have the same motivation and the story becomes a cross between Mission Impossible and the Bourne Ultimatum all be it with a female hero.
The film retains Lisabeth Salander’s hate for powerful men who abuse women and sees her dishing out strong justice for those who have not been protected by the law. In this story, her computer hacking skills are employed to infiltrate the US Security Systems to recover a key to all the nuclear weapons in the world. As could be expected, this makes her a target for various governments and criminal organisations and she is constantly at risk. To assist her in finding out which organisation is chasing her she contacts her journalist friend, Mikael Bloomkvist, for help and so the two are linked together again. Her fight for the truth ties her efforts to the young son of a computer program developer and an American NSA agent who was responsible for keeping the nuclear program safe.
In this episode of the story, Claire Foy (The Crown) has mistakenly been cast as Lisabeth Salander as in her performance she acts like a petulant teenager rather than the brooding goth portrayed by Noomi Rapace. The original Lisabeth relied on street smarts gained from her tough upbringing and resulted in a savage independence but with a repressed desire for attention. In this story, Foy’s Lisabeth is needier, less calculated and moves like a trained secret service agent. Rather than a developing drama, the movie comes across as a James Bond story with implausible escapes from death, corny dialogue and an over the top villain. Bloomkvist, who acts as an equal in the earlier stories, becomes a weak male sidekick, and for some reason is much younger than in the original movies. The movie comes across lazy in some of its plots such as having a protected safe house that doesn’t have curtains, trying to keep a low profile by stealing the most expensive car you can find and have vital paper evidence survive the total destruction of a burnt out apartment. (Sorry for the spoilers).
I really enjoyed reading and watching the Millenium Trilogy but this continuation of the story came across as cashing in on its popularity rather than trying to further develop the characters and the story. A fifth book was released last year which I assume will also be made into a movie but my involvement with “The Girl” is now over.