The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)

[Wayne_j]

Title: The Girl in the Spider's Web

Tagline: The Past Never Forgets

Genre: Drama, Thriller, Mystery, Crime, Action

Director: Fede Alvarez

Cast: Claire Foy, Sverrir Gudnason, Sylvia Hoeks, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Merchant, Vicky Krieps, Christopher Convery, Claes Bang, Synnøve Macody Lund, Cameron Britton, Mikael Persbrandt, Carlotta von Falkenhayn, Beau Gadsdon, Andreja Pejic, Hendrik Heutmann, Volker Bruch

Release: 2018-10-26

Runtime: 117

Plot: Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cyber-criminals and corrupt government officials - both in Sweden and in the United States - whom are only known as The Spider Society.

 

[Wayne_j]

I saw this today and couldn't find a thread for it in this forum by using the search function.

I enjoyed this movie but I think it is definitely the worst installment of the franchise (both US and Swedish versions). It just isn't as hard hitting as the other films.

 

[Sam Posten]

Agreed.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

So does the existence of this film pretty much spell the death of any David Fincher follow up films?

 

[Wayne_j]

Most likely.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I saw it on Friday, it never really settled in for me. The family angle just seemed too rushed and it was taking on some James Bond style of plot that didn't quite work for this cinematic franchise.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

So does the existence of this film pretty much spell the death of any David Fincher follow up films?

Yes. This film was made as a direct result of the decision not to proceed with the Fincher-Craig-Rooney series. The film that group made cost too much to produce and did not make enough to justify a sequel with the same talent. And because it’s been seven years since that film came out, any multi-picture contacts signed then would no longer be valid.

 

[dpippel]

We still have the Noomi Rapace trilogy, thankfully, which IMO is the best anyway.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Yes. This film was made as a direct result of the decision not to proceed with the Fincher-Craig-Rooney series. The film that group made cost too much to produce and did not make enough to justify a sequel with the same talent. And because it’s been seven years since that film came out, any multi-picture contacts signed then would no longer be valid.

Well that's a damn shame. I read the original book, and absolutely hated it. When the Fincher movie came out, I only watched it because of his involvement, and I ended up absolutely loving the film and wanting the rest of them to be made. Without his involvement I think i'm out.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

You ever watch a movie, get about halfway through and think to yourself, "I have no idea what this film is about?"

That was me at my screening of "Web".

Oh, not that I genuinely didn't get the "plot". I understood that it revolved around various parties' desire to possess the powerful computer program.

However, that doesn't act as a particularly engaging story. The "Firefall" program exists as the literal definition of a MacGuffin - it's there to motivate action but it's essentially meaningless otherwise.

And if some real action/tension resulted, I wouldn't care, but "Web" borders on "deadly dull territory".

Actually, it starts pretty well, as the scene in which Lisbeth plies her "avenging angel" trade entertains. Granted, I already knew it from the trailer, but it's still a nice introduction to the character.

After that, matters go nowhere, and that seems bizarre given the stakes involved. "Firefall" could literally destroy the world, so it seems crucial it stays out of the hands of the baddies who pursue it.

But as played out, the movie generates little to no action or excitement. Lisbeth chases people and people chase Lisbeth - dub "Yakety Sax" over the material and you'd get a more violent episode of Benny Hill.

I can't overemphasize how dull this thing is, as even its action scenes lack life. We maintain little investment in the thinly-drawn characters, and the big reveal toward the end seems both predictable and eye-rolling.

Foy does a decent job as Lisbeth, but the movie oddly leaves Blomqvist as a tertiary character. Maybe that's how he plays in the book, but given his past with Lisbeth - and his prominence in "Tattoo" - it feels odd to see him on the sidelines so much of the time.

Count me as disappointed. I didn't love Fincher's "Tattoo" but it worked reasonably well, whereas "Web" is just a dull drag. I counted the minutes until it finally ended and I could move on with my life!

 

[Jeff Cooper]

You ever watch a movie, get about halfway through and think to yourself, "I have no idea what this film is about?"

Ironically that was exactly how I felt when reading the GwtDT book. I was probably nearing halfway through it, and I still felt like I had no idea what the point was or where it was going. It was dreadfully boring and also around that point had about 90% Blomquist and 10% actual girl with the dragon tattoo.

Those were the primary reasons I hated the book. Maybe I liked the film a lot better because I already knew the story by that point.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Ironically that was exactly how I felt when reading the GwtDT book. I was probably nearing halfway through it, and I still felt like I had no idea what the point was or where it was going. It was dreadfully boring and also around that point had about 90% Blomquist and 10% actual girl with the dragon tattoo.

Those were the primary reasons I hated the book. Maybe I liked the film a lot better because I already knew the story by that point.

I never read any of the books, so the Fincher film was my introduction to the series. I eventually watched the Rapace version of "Tattoo" and preferred the Fincher flick, though that might've been because I'd seen it 2-3 times and simply viewed that as the way the story was "supposed to be"...

 

[Ushabye]

It hasn't opened in my part of the world yet, so I can't comment. But the novel is definitely a far slicker and less engaging affair than the original Stig Larsson trilogy. Despite all his books needing tighter editing and a fresh English translation, I couldn't put them down. Lizabeth is such an unpredictable and engaging character and you get a fascinating dive into the Swedish psyche, it's history and politics.

As far as the film adaptations go, I enjoyed them all for different reasons. Both Fincher's and the Swedish takes have pros and cons. Fincher said his favorite of the trilogy was the second, with its especially gripping final act. Its a shame we'll never see his vision of those books, and of course Stig died long before getting stuck into the remaining seven novels in the series of ten he was planing. His partner has his laptop in a safe, which includes a story breakdown of his fourth book plus the first few chapters he'd completed. His father and brother inherited his estate, not her, and she's refused to surrender the computer to them. They hired a new writer to do the fourth book and wouldn't agree to do a TV series after the Fincher film under performed - insisted on movies only. Now that that plan has tanked maybe Salander and Bloomquist will find a proper home on Netflix or Hulu.