The Girl in the Spider's Web

The Girl in the Spider's Web

Starring Claire Foy, Sverrir Gudnason, LaKeith Stanfield, Sylvia Hoeks

Directed by Fede Alvarez

The Story:
Expert computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) lives to avenge women who were wronged by men, serving as a vigilante who's hunted by the police force as well as every bad guy imaginable.  She comes across information regarding a computer program known as Firefall which gives its owner complete control over all the nuclear weapons in the world, and sets to take it from the NSA so they can't get their hands on it.  Although successful, she discovers other people are after the program as well, and hunts her down to try and find it.

Her investigation leads to a shady organization known as the Spiders, led by the mysterious Camilla (Sylvia Hoeks), who holds very personal ties to Lisbeth.  Together with her longtime friend Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) and NSA security expert Edwin Needham (LaKeith Stanfield), Lisbeth tracks Camilla down which leads to a confrontation over the safety of the world.

The Pros:

Claire Foy has emerged as a great leading lady on the big screen, appearing in stellar works like "Unsane" and "First Man," and here she tackles the role of Lisbeth Salander with gusto, clearly giving her all in the performance.

The film has some great action sequences and some beautiful cinematography, along with a catchy opening reminiscent of the James Bond series.

The Cons:

The role of Lisbeth Salander has been played by three different actresses - Foy being the most recent.  The original "Dragon Tattoo" trilogy was done in Sweden, with international actress Noomi Rapace as the lead, and she treats Salander with care and precision, showcasing her as something more than just a generic action heroine, but a woman who was deeply, sexually abused and uses that rage to fuel her passion.

When American director David Fincher decided to make an American version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," he enlisted the talent of Rooney Mara to play the role of Salander.  The result was a more-than-decent remake, leading to five Academy Award nominations, including a Best Actress nod for Mara.

Now, with director Fede Alvarez ("Don't Breathe," "Evil Dead"), the role of Lisbeth Salander has now been neutered to a completely vapid, almost nonsensical character who practically stumbles upon clues in a way that compares her to that of bumbling inspector Jacques Clouseau.  She's constantly one-upped by the bad guys, and spends most of the film on the defense as she has to find ways out of sticky situations she finds herself in.  While Foy owns the role, it's unfortunately a role that has no substance to it.

The story, which is loosely based on the novel by David Lagercrantz (based off characters created by Stieg Larsson, who passed away in 2004), is nothing short of simplistic.  There was a lot done to the film that was never included in the book, probably to make the film seem more appealing to the general masses.  Man creates a computer program to control nuclear weapons, bad guys want it, good guys want it destroyed.  The film tries to throw a fast one by having the main villain be Lisbeth's long-forgotten sister, but not even this familial tie can add any sort of tension.  It seems that all the actors just float through their performances, not offering any emotional depth or strength, but rather play a hacker-based game of cat-and-mouse, where the good guys always seem to be at least one step behind.

The film relies on generic action tropes that never make sense, especially in real-world situations.  The biggest of these flaws is when the bad guys are shooting at Salander, who's nowhere near any cover, who's entirely out in the open, yet with the substantial firepower, cannot seem to hit her.

The ending of the film was laughable, especially considering it took basically the most lucky moment ever to bring it to a conclusion, an event that had me laughing in my seat after witnessing it. 

The Summary:

Even though the entire concept of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is flawed, they've managed to somehow create some effective, powerful films.  "The Girl in the Spider's Web" is easily the weakest of the group, reducing Salander to a generic action hero, and while Claire Foy gives a great performance, she never gets anything tangible to work with, leading to a subpar, unmemorable action film.

The Score: C