Love the books and the first Swedish 'The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo' and really liked the follow ups and David Fincher film. Another big attraction was Claire Foy, like her very much as an actress, with her fair share of great performances, and wanted to see how she would fare in a different role. 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' was also part of my seeing as many 2018 films as possible quest.
While it was by no means a terrible film, 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' was a disappointment. Not just when comparing it to the Swedish films and the Fincher version, all vastly superior, but also on its own (which is a fairer way to judge for me), the latter even more so. It is not one of the worst films of the year but it's one of the weaker films seen the past month or so at the cinema (saw five films in one and a half weeks at the cinema at the time of seeing this, and of those five 'Widows' was the best with 'Robin Hood' the worst).
'The Girl in the Spider's Web' does have good things. Claire Foy attacks Lisbeth with fierce intensity and gusto, no question of her commitment to this role here, and hers a more than admirable interpretation of the character. Really liked the production values, with some jaw-droppingly stunning scenery and stylishly bleak photography. The music has the right amount of rousing intensity.
In the early parts of the film, the action is well staged and exciting, one of the better ones being the motorcycle/frozen lake sequence. The prosthetics are very well done, there is particularly one grisly bit that won't be spoilt but that made for one of the more unsettling scenes for any film seen this year. A few supporting performances are decent, Lakeith Stanfield is the most involving while Stephen Merchant makes the most of little and Sylvia Hoeks brings an imperious iciness to a rather underwritten role.
However, most of the supporting cast are at best forgettable. One of the biggest disappointments was how much of a spare part with not much personality plot device Mikael was rather than playing a properly crucial role he did in the stories of the other films. Sverrir Gudnason was rather bland in the role. The character development most of the time was barely there, Lisbeth is the only character that was properly explored, the rest were completely soulless generally with the underwritten villains not being as threatening as ought and pretty uninteresting and vague flashbacks.
Later on the action does become somewhat too noisy and predictable that they are more tedious than exciting. The dialogue completely lacks tautness and fails to properly intrigue. Alvarez's direction is competent but not exactly inspired. But it's the story that's the biggest issue here, it started off well with a dark tension but that gets lost too early and the steely intensity, psychological depth and glued to the seat creepiness are absent. Any promise is undone in the wildly improbable final act in particular, with some truly nonsensical moments, vague ones (the technological element gets muddled) and reliant on unlikely coincidences. There was an attempt at emotion in the climactic confrontation but it was too forced and tacked on, failing to resonate.
Concluding, watchable but a disappointment. 5/10 Bethany Cox
