The Girl in the Spider's Web

Contemporary Hollywood really did quite something special with this sequel to the story of cult hacker Lisbeth Salander... The casting of the title role alone is highly questionable. Noomi Rapace is probably unbeatable in it, and maybe only Rooney Mara could adequately replace her a few years ago. The actor playing journalist Mikael Blomkvist probably needs no mention. It's the same thing but in pale blue. It takes a lot of self-confidence to skip the second and third parts and make a fourth. According to the mentioned facts, the result also seems to reflect that. This is a typical overseas-produced action thriller without a shred of invention, with the main characters desperately lacking in charisma. Maybe it was only the fast pace of the plot that made me finish the film. (40%) (07/12/2020)

Honestly, apart from the first film in the original Swedish trilogy, I was only really hooked by the first one; the others either weren’t worth much or were purely frustrating, but I didn’t get any special feelings from them. I still haven't seen Fincher’s American remake of the first film...we’ll see, maybe I’ll get around to it eventually. However, I was very interested in this latest addition because it offers a storyline that hasn’t been explored by the Swedes before. Alvarez caught my attention with Evil Dead, a fantastic thriller through and through. That’s why I was quite looking forward to The Girl in the Spider’s Web. It didn’t disappoint me, but it didn’t exactly blow me away either. I think Claire Foy was well-cast in the role of Lisbeth Salander; she convincingly captured her image and her behavior was quite close to the original when you compare it. On the other hand, the actor playing the main journalist disappointed me; I would have chosen someone else for that role. The action wasn’t bad; some scenes were well-shot, but I still wonder if they should have focused more on the thriller aspects rather than the action. Still, it was well done. I give it 64%. (18/03/2019)

I haven't read David Lagercrantz's book, and I'm not going to. I'm annoyed by Americans constantly parasitizing on great works. I can get over it when it comes to film, but that’s as far as I go. I was curious to see how the creators would follow up on “Millennium,” but it turned out they didn't have the slightest problem with that. They went about it in the same way as an idiot taking a mental ability test - they shoved a square peg into a round hole. It didn’t quite fit, but the task was completed. Logic had to take a break sometimes, a few corners were cut, but I'm afraid I have seen much worse. (07/05/2019)

Holy crap, what pig wrote this script? Incredibly infantile dialogue, bizarre scene development, and nonsensical behavior from virtually everyone, everywhere. From the plot itself, where for some reason ("I thought I could trust her") a programmer approaches the protagonist to steal the NSA's missile launch program, which she accepts (?), to sequences like Lisbeth not being able to think of another way to meet Blomkvist that wouldn't, for example, stop the elevators in two buildings, to dialogue like "Give me her number!" "I'll never give it to you!" "You know she's probably sleeping with other girls?" "That bitch. Here's her number." The facepalm makes almost every scene entertaining in its own right for some reason, but if I'm giving anything an above average rating, it's once again because of the proof that Alvarez still holds his own as a top genre director. The action scenes and the cinematography especially are absolutely top notch, and some scenes (the sliding camera following Lisbeth and Mikael’s fall from the window, the car vs. the forest, and the one-shot from NSA headquarters) had me holding my breath at times. And that's what these films are supposed to be about in the first place. (08/02/2019)

A fine script, but what can you do when Claire Foy doesn't even come close to brimming with the charisma of Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara. The film adaptation (both Swedish and American) of the Millennium series benefited in particular from its great cast, as well as its distinctive visual style. When you watch The Girl in the Spider's Web, you'll end up drawing those comparisons whether you like it or not, and with respect to the direction and acting, it's simply a weaker reheating of the previous films. Which sucks, because the story is very interesting. (23/02/2019)