The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)

I'm gonna sound biased, but the truth is that I am. David Fincher come back! I miss his take of "Millennium", which was brilliantly engaging. But we gotta accept the fact that the whole trilogy couldn't be adapted because of the first film not being financially successful enough. The fourth book was also the first in the series to not be written by Stieg Larsson, but instead by David Lagercrantz. Must have been a daunting task following in the footsteps of the world-wide bestsellers. I remember that my dad recognised him in a store once. So he went up to Lagercrantz, said hello and then left him in peace. My dad said he didn't wanna say anything else because he was being criticised and under pressure for taking over the series. That's when I first heard about it - and yes, I was sceptic as well. The trailers had me worried. The direction was gonna be faster, more action oriented and appeal to an even wider audience. I get that, sure. But the brilliance of "Dragon Tattoo" is its investigate dark mystery. Look how the story is told and how the audience is always interested in finding the answers to the questions. Was "Spider's Web" any good? Well... Better than I expected.

Fede Alvarez is not a bad director choice. I underestimated him. He knows how to get the stylish imagery. There's a good eye here since many creative ideas are being used for the shots. It gets points for that. He uses some shaky cam in the intense scenes. Thankfully there's a good balance of steady and hand-held camera use. I've seen Claire Foy getting much work recently. My bets where that she would portray Lisbeth Salander being hysterical or explosive. I was wrong because she lands a solid performance. Subtle when she needs to be, and even showing the emotion that's underneath Lisbeth's tough exterior. Surprisingly she's even funny. Sverrir Gudnason shows a warm interpretation of Mikael Blomkvist. He comes across as a friendly person who's presence lightens the mood. Not a bad take either. I would in all honesty have been ecstatic if Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig had returned. Then again Fede Alvarez felt he wouldn't had done 50% of his job if he took Fincher's cast. I don't really agree, but I understand what he means. The first act of the film was pretty alright. The look, the pacing and the introduction of the story worked. You can tell by the beginning that the style direction will be something else: An action-thriller. Salander has become a vigilante. That's something I feel kind of "Eh.." about. Clearly not the original intention. If you look at it as a James Bond type film, you'll enjoy it quite a lot. Don't go in expecting a moody crime mystery. That's not what you'll get. The story is not as isolated but more expanded involving Nato or Swedish Special Forces and people running after computer programs. Seemed more far-fetched than what it needed to be.

The experience of watching "Spider's Web" was enjoyable. You can have fun with the action and your suspenseful scenes. As a typical action movie, it does the job. The villain in the piece stood out to me. Sylvia Hoeks (who we saw in "Blade Runner 2049") delivers an eerie enemy for Salander. I get the feeling she's not gonna get enough credit for this role since her entire character doesn't fit the "supposed" realistic tone. It's a person straight out of a James Bond movie. And there I go again with that comparison, but it's

Fmovies: First of I love Claire Foy, she is a fantastic actrees. She is also very sweet. Lisbeth Salander is not. So it doesn't matter how much leather you put on top of Claire, she's never going to resemble Lisbeth Salander, the punk skinny girl with the dragon tattoo on her back. Claire is also "old" for the role. Claire is 34. Lisbeth somewhere between 24 and 26. It wouldn't matter so much except that the books depict Lisbeth as someone that looks fragile, even child-like. Claire on the other hand looks like a mother of two or three kids dressed in a Halloween custome (no offense).

And then we have Sverrir Gudnanson, who looks like he is 32 when Blomkvist is a fater-type figure.

Top that with changing the character's motivations and archetypes completely and you get a disaster. "The Girl in the Spider's Web" could very well be called "Lisbeth Bourne" because somehow in the three years between Dragon Tattoo and this book/film Lisbeth became a 00 type agent.

Terrible movie for fans. Mediocre movie for everyone else.

The original book trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest) were written by Stieg Larsson. There were movie versions of each released in 2009 starring Noomi Rapace. In 2010 there was the Millennium TV mini-series, which was a compilation of the three Swedish films with extended scenes/more stuff added back in. The three movies were re-released on DVD with the extra stuff added back in and these became the 'Extended Versions' of the films. In 2011 came the US remake of the first film. Since then, another author (David Lagercrantz) started writing a new series of books continuing the story on from the third book (as the original author, Stieg Larsson, had passed away). This new movie starring Claire Foy is the first film adaptation of the new series of books. The only 'remake' so far has been the 2011 version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Sadly, not enough people were first introduced to the character of Lisbeth Salander through Noomi Rapace's unparalleled performance, setting the standard by which all other portrayals should be compared. She did all the hard work/heavy lifting, bringing this character to life onscreen for the first time. Quite unfairly, she never scored an Oscar nomination (which I think she *should* have), nor did these original films receive all the praise that the US remake got. Whether it was the fact that the original film trilogy had subtitles, which people simply couldn't be bothered reading, I don't know, but it's a shame that the big flashy US remake got all the glory the original films/actress to play Salander should have. Those who told fans of the original Swedish films to 'Give the US remake a chance!' and dismissed the recasting of the Lisbeth role now know what it feels like. All the people whose first introduction to the characters of Lisbeth, Mikael, etc was the Fincher version clearly couldn't take their own advice, as a large percentage of them seem to be damning this new film, despite the fact that at least it's based on a book that *hasn't* been filmed previously.

I've seen complaints about Claire Foy as Lisbeth not looking vastly different to how she normally looks, and this is a result of Fincher going overboard with Lisbeth's look in his version, where she was downright alienesque in appearance. No, it *isn't* normal for Lisbeth to walk around with panda eyes/bizarre make-up. If you watched the second film in the original trilogy, you'd see she reserved the theatrical makeup for special occasions. That's what we get here in the opening scene, with Foy's Lisbeth sporting a swath of white paint over her eyes as she helps out a wife with an abusive husband. And the mohawk only appears here and briefly towards the end of the film. Fincher decided to go all 'comic book' with Lisbeth's look and created a 'heightened/hyper-reality', whereas this film is a bit more 'restrained'. No elaborate fights on escalators this time. When Lisbeth fights a guy hand-to-hand here, it's in a small enclosed area, brutal (not flashy), and she doesn't magically win.

We're now seeing the reaction from those who dismissed the part Noomi Rapace played in making the character of Lisbeth Salander as widely recognsied as she is (or who simply don't wish to accept that the role originated with her), because they fell in love with the remake version, when the shoe is on the other foot. The outcry over &

The Girl in the Spider's Web fmovies. I love the "Millennium" books, and appreciated the follow ups. The movies have been enjoyable, although I much prefer the Noomi Rapace vehicles. This movie? I'm pretty sure the writer picked up the Cliff's notes, looked at the character names and read "computer program" and "NSA" and decided that was all he needed to know. This movie had nothing in common with the book, and none of the interest of the previous movies. Husband, who hasn't read the book, still only have it an "ok" rating.

The Milllenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson was adapted into 3 superb movies, in Swedish! all with Naomi Rapace! Hollywood remade the Dragon Tattoo with Daniel Craig, then copped out on the Follow up stories, deciding to jump to book 4 written by David Largercrantz. Does it work? Not really, unless you're comfortable with the same old "go for the maximum return" angle. Hollywood has to do that! Unfortunately their desire to create a female Bond like character is the result. They've made it all so implausible!

When this reboot/sequel was announced with a new cast, my expectations were really low, however I decided to give a chance, since the director is the same of 2 horror movies that I really loved (Evil Dead and Don't Breathe).

The Girl in the Spider's Web is the opposite of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (I'm referring to the Swedish movie and to the American remake), in the originals we've seen an interesting story full of mystery, well developed characters, two great protagonists and some good twists, unlike this reboot/sequel/whatever.

I tried to like The Girl in the Spider's Web, because I respect Fede Alvarez, but I need to be honest with my opinion about him, he's amazing to work as director in horror movies but not in another different genres. This movie is just awful! The plot is cliche, uninteresting, with some predictable scenes and the worst action sequences I've seen in a movie with a "big" budget (seriously, even my grandmother without any knowledge about cinema could film better those fight scenes of Lisbeth fighting the bad guys in some bathrooms). The cast is so weak, Claire Foy is a good actress and she tries to do her best with her poorly developed character, but stills the weakest Lisbeth Salander. They're not bad actors, but all of them seem to be in this movie by obligation.

I can't say I'm disappointed because my expectations were already low, I'm just a little sad because it could be an awesome film if Sony had chosen a more appropriate director and better screenwriters.

Rating 3.5/10