Review of The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018) by Rebecca31 — 24 Nov 2018

I read the book just before seeing the film but I shouldn't have went to such effort because it doesn't look like anyone else involved in the making of The Girl in the Spider's Web bothered to read it. In all fairness to Claire Foy, this isn't her fault, she shows up and does her best but the Lisbeth Salander portrayed in this sequel barely resembles her character from the original Dragon Tattoo trilogy. .

Lisbeth Salander is a pierced, mohawk sporting, leather jacked wearing vigilante not to be messed with, "the righter of wrongs, the girl who hurts men to who hurts women." She's hired by the horribly miscast Stephen Merchant (Frans Balder) to steal back firefall. An evil computer programme that in the wrong hands would give the user the power of a god, you know access to nuclear codes and all that other generic Bond villain stuff. Yet as the trailer clearly shows you Lisbeth gets caught up in a whole web of spies and cybercriminals. But just incase you forgot this is called The Girl in the Spider's Web, lots of little spiders show up at random points in the film to remind you. Throw in the villain humming a very menacing version of the Itsy Bitsy Spider and I'm sorry but I'm done. This film is badly written, badly paced and I'm struggling to find anything I liked about it. The third time we've seen Lisbeth Salander onscreen, the unfinished David Fincher remake starring Rooney Mara is barely worth mentioning it's that forgettable. A shot by shot remake that doesn't have the atmosphere of the original. It never needed a remake and now we have Claire Foy taking on the role in a sequel. Perhaps so desperate to play a character completely different from her previous roles and although Foy is trying her best and she certainly looks the part, she doesn't have the same on screen presence that Noomi Rapace has. The changes to Salander's character are pointless and borderline insulting. It needed to be grittier, with a completely different story, this isn't a James Bond or a Mission Impossible movie yet that's what it felt like it was trying to be. Oh sure turn Salander into an action hero and hope to build an even bigger franchise out of it, well sorry lads you've even failed at that. A boring predictable crime movie you've seen done before only better. All The Girl in the Spider's Web did was make me want to go back and watch the original trilogy. The book was average at best but the film couldn't even be bothered to follow it. Skip this film, any major plot point has been spoiled by the trailer and you'll be able to predict the whole thing from the very start. Not recommended.