Wednesday, May 22, 2019

The Girl in the Spider’s Web 2018


     This film is based on the fourth book in a series but David Lagercrantz wrote this novel and not Stieg Larsson.  Stieg had planned to write ten books about Lizbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist but he passed away in 2004.  Lisbeth Salander is a vigilante hacker in Stockholm, Sweden.  She is hired by computer programmer Frans Balder to retrieve Firefall.  This is a program able to access the world’s nuclear codes.  Balder developed these codes for the National Security Agency.  He now believes the codes are too dangerous to exist.  Lisbeth successfully retrieves Firefall from the NSA servers but she is unable to unlock the program.  Agent Edwin Needham is aware that Lisbeth has obtained th program.  Mercenaries led by Jan Holster steal the program and they attempt to kill Lisbeth.  Balder believes Llisbeth decided to keep Firefall for herself when she doesn’t meet him at their rendezvous site.  He contacts Gabrelle Grane, she is the deputy director of the Swedish Security Service.  Gabrelle moves Balder and his young son August to a safe house.  Needham tracks the login to Stockholm and now he’s looking for Lisbeth and the program.  

     There is a LOT going on in this film and sometimes it’s difficult to keep track of the people involved in the spy world!!  Even if you can follow the characters, they can suddenly change sides on you?  I don't think Claire Foy is as much of a heavyweight in this role as Noomi Rapce?  She is the previous actress in the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 2009, The Girl Who Played with Fire 2009 and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest?  Noomi is a triple threat and she was certainly tough enough but it's also questionable about Rooney Mara?   

117 min, Action directed by Fede Alvarez with Claire Foy, Beau Gadsdon, Sverrir Gudnason, LaKeith Stanfield, Sylvia Hoeks, Carlotta von Falkenhayn, Stephen Merchant, Christopher Convery, Claes Bang, Synnove Macody Lund, Cameron Britton, Vicky Krieps, Andreja Pejic. 

Note:  Goodreads gives the book 3.76* out of 5* with 114,688 ratings and 12,148 reviews, Imdb 6.1 out of 10, Roger Ebert 1 1/2* out of 5*, Rotten Tomatoes 40% critic 36% audience, RollingStone 3 ½* out of 5* Peter Travers, EmpireOnline 3* out of 5* Alex Godfrey, Amazon 3.6* out of 5* with 466 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Stockholm and Leipzig/Halle Airport, Sweden; Berlin and Hamburg, Germany.  Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara were upset the casting for this film.  They were fully committed to a sequel but their last film was a box office disappointment.  Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson were originally considered for the film prior to this one and were in talks for this film.  Felicity Jones and Alicia Vikander were also considered.  The budget was $43 million and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo of 2011 had a $90 million budget.  One of the reasons given for the financial failure of the previous film was the overblown budget?  This film still flopped even with a much small production budget.  Claire Foy was inspired to get a few real tattoos of her own after sporting Lisbeth’s tattoos.  

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