Less Nordic Noir and more Nordic TNT wannabe superhero Saturday afternoon action trash.
Based on the official continuation of the late Stieg Larson’s Millenium trilogy, itself previously adapted to film in both Sweden and America, “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” serves as a pseudo-sequel/soft reboot of the previous American adaptation of Lisbeth Salander’s adventures in 2011’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
Having settled into something of a vigilante role for those
finding themselves abused by the powers that be, Salander (portrayed this time
by Claire Foy) this time finds herself embroiled in a conspiracy to that could
threaten world security after a cyber security suite developed by America that’s
capable of hacking the world’s nuclear arms, is illegally obtained by Swedish
spies, forcing her to reluctantly work with an NSA hacker, played by LaKeith
Stanfield, to confront her uncomfortable past, as her childhood sister is
revealed to have conspired the entire web of deception to confront her
estranged sibling over perceived past transgressions.
If all of that sounds like a ludicrous leap in storytelling logic
for a Nordic noir franchise that has gotten by up to this point on bleak and
moody atmosphere, hard hitting social themes about the corruption and hypocrisy
of human nature despite the apparent achievement of liberal utopia, and
intricate tightly plotted character play serving as a fascinating study of the
nature of victimization and a mildly exploitative but equally cathartic fantasy
for those deeply wronged by systems that protect their abusers, give yourself a
pat on the back for maintaining your own sanity.
Make no mistake; “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” may be a thoroughly mediocre film despite its
slick sense of style and direction but it doesn’t come anywhere near the levels
of badness protruding from last year’s “The Snowman.” Despite that however,
there’s a part of me that holds a little more admiration for that film after
sitting through this one.
“The Snowman” may have been an aborted abomination but at
least it was an abomination of clashing creative views and production
desperation born from some sense of evident care about the final product on
some substantial level.
Conversely, despite director Fede Alvarez holding down a
solid looking and decently paced production, it doesn’t take long to realize
that the stock action movie playing out wasn’t inspired by the Nordic noir
crime thriller it shares its namesake and franchise with but rather bland
generic, hacker-centric action flick wearing the skin of something stylish that
it shares almost no common ground with.
The removal of the story’s characteristic teeth becomes
evident right from the jump, as an awkward prologue featuring a flashback to
Salander’s childhood that receives no sort of significant follow up until the third
act, transitions into an opening sequence of the titular hero on the job and
trying way too hard to sell her as a European hacktivist Batman, with a graphic
credit sequence that probably would have been astonishing had some sort of
powerful musical piece been playing over it, something even David Fincher knew
to do 7 years ago.
What subsequently plays out is a production of narrative,
dramatic, and atmospheric contradictions that’s too slick and stylized to be
believable, too dreary and lifeless to be fun or trashy, and too thin on story
to do something unique with its subject matter or explore the traditional
themes of its genre meaningfully.
That really is a shame too because the movie is with merits
beyond the money and production values put into it.
Claire Foy really throws herself into the role almost
effortlessly and is continuing to make a great showcase for her acting range this
year, along with an effortless and casual display of bisexuality in media that
should be highlighted as a definitive way to portray these things.
Additionally, LaKeith Stanfield is beginning to show himself
to be an outright treasure, taking a role painfully throwaway and putting more
into it than the screenwriters were willing to give him to the point where you
can almost see him struggling not to drown with what nonexistent lifelines he’s
been thrown.
Sadly, whatever worth the film’s leads and director were
able to bring to the table are drowned out by a production so laughably calculated
by the studio towards establishing a “James Bond-esque” spy franchise in a mold
where these antics are woefully out of place that all I could leave thinking
about was how smashed I could get making a drinking game out the piled on plot
contrivances and how hilarious it is in a darkly ironic way that a studio like
Sony would release a film so obviously ignorant of how hacking works.
4 Dramatic Snowstorms out of 10
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