I’m only going to reference the full title to this movie one time for accuracy purposes and the pacification of some studio exec somewhere that thought an eleven word movie title would be somehow beneficial in a social media world of limited characters. The Girl in the Spider’s Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story explores the further adventures (or misadventures) of Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) as she continues to fight the demons in her past. No matter how fast or far you run, your past always finds a way to catch up to you.
Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) has built a rock solid reputation of getting the job done where others cannot. She fights for women who do not have the voice or lack the courage or skill set to make things right. The skilled hacker uses technology to tip the scales of righteousness in her favor. Her latest endeavor finds Lisbeth up against her most dangerous enemies yet, and to make matters even worse, this fight becomes person.
A face that she has not seen since the days of her childhood returns to inflict pain and suffering on Lisbeth as her own sister, Camilla (Sylvia Hoeks), vows to make this a very deadly family reunion. Reconnecting with a familiar journalist acquaintance, Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) and a U.S. government official (Lakeith Stanfield), Lisbeth hopes to keep dangerous cutting edge technology out of the hands of those that wish to do the world harm.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web is based on the novel written by David Lagercrantz, which is a continuation of original trilogy penned by Stieg Larsson. Since the American version only managed to launch one movie (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)), switching out the main actors with new ones was not really that big of a deal. Claire Foy takes over for Rooney Mara in the lead role and is just as dry and awkward as her predecessor. This is not an indictment of Foy’s acting skills, rather it speaks to the overall flatline of the character itself. Lisbeth Salander is not your typical tough-as-nails action driven type. What she is instead is resourceful and resilient. While effective in getting the job done, she lacks modern standard of we’ve become accustomed to in these modern times.
Fede Alvarez stays true to the characters that people who’ve read the novel have come to expect. That translation onto film is a bit trying at times, giving way to some outright boredom. If director David Fincher, armed with names like Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgård couldn’t pull off even one sequel. There’s little to chance that Alvarez, Foy and Lakeith Stanfield will have a fighting chance at big box office success. And with that revelation, The Girl in the Spider’s Web is probably one of those features that you don’t need to bother with in its box office run. At any rate, you can see Claire Foy all tatted up in theaters now if you so choose.
