I am not a fan of Steig Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. Maybe they suffered
in translation but I found the novels stylistically ugly, narratively dull, and
emotionally rather unpleasant. That said I didn’t mind the Swedish-made film trilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl
who played with Fire, and The Girl
who kicked the Hornet’s Nest (all 2009).
They weren’t great films but they were smartly
made, efficient thrillers with the bonus of a terrific central character.
Lisbeth Salander, as portrayed by Noomi Rapace, seemed to be a genuine action
hero for the new millennium. Salander was deliberately fluid, exhibiting male
or female traits as it suited her. In many ways she defied description or
categorisation, she was neither hunter nor prey, and lived by her own code of
conduct.
It was this defiance of convention and Rapace’s
flinty, uncompromising performance which provided a compelling core for this
Scandi-action trilogy. Remaking the first one in 2011 with Rooney Mara in the
title role and David Fincher behind the camera was a bad idea which resulted in
a bad movie. However it’s like Citizen
Kane compared to the latest film in the series.
The Girl in
the Spider’s Web could not be more naked in its intentions. Based on a book
commissioned by Larsson’s estate to keep the franchise going after his untimely
death, it is completely lacking in anything other than a desire to make as much
money as possible.
Salander here is played, in a bizarre piece of
casting, by Claire Foy but the character has been stripped of everything that
made her interesting. She is a super hacker and avenger of wronged women and
there is no trap or peril from which she cannot escape. She’s like a Goth James
Bond as she charges hither and yon across the icy landscape pursued by a bunch
of cack-handed sadists.
The plot, such as it is, concerns a piece of
software which will enable the user to control pretty much all of the world’s
nuclear weapons. The inventor (Stephen Merchant) commissions Salander to steal
it but there are all sorts of vested interests who are determined to get their
hands on it. I was going to say they will stop at nothing but plainly they drew
the line at a decent script. There’s no story to speak of and the plot it just
a bunch of improbably convenient coincidental stuff that happens in front of
the camera.
The kindest thing you can say about the direction
by Fede Alvarez is that it is functional. The action scenes are competently
staged but there is no tension or excitement. Like the Fincher version too
there is a nastiness to a lot of the violence which is just unpleasant.
Even allowing for that, I didn’t really care about
anyone in this film, not even the small child caught up in it all. Salander
herself is a soulless void and since she has been established as such an
unbeatable character, I was never once concerned about whether she would
survive or not. I knew she would make it through to the end, which is more than
I could say about me.
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