The Millennium Trilogy is one of the more compelling trio of books in this era, especially in the #MeToo era. The books contain disturbing material that are beyond comprehension, but why are readers are so fascinated by the books and also the Swedish movies and the David Fincher re-make of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? The reason is because readers and viewers are so fascinated by its main character, Lisbeth Salander, as she is intelligent and fierce. Even though she was struggling with a dark past, she overcomes those demons. I very much liked both versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I was disappointed to learn that David Fincher, Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig were not coming back. But, I crossed my fingers because they have director Fede Alvarez, hot off of Don't Breathe, and Claire Foy who is having a career year with First Man and Unsane, one of the underrated films of 2018. Unfortunately, the star power is trapped in a predictable plot reminiscent of a James Bond film rather than focusing on developing the character in a more interesting storyline that is well constructed and even suspenseful.
The movie opens with a prologue in which observe the relationship between Lisbeth and her sister, Camila. They both had an inappropriate relationship with their father as he comes on them which inclines Lisbeth to escape and leave Camila behind. We flash forward as a grown up Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) takes care of a CEO who has beaten his wife. She puts her account in a couple of prostitute's accounts and in his wife's account.
Later on, Lisbeth receives a highly valuable message from Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant), a former NSA employee. He informs her of a software program called Firefall, which is an access to the world's nuclear launch codes. Balder thinks that if it falls into the wrong hands, it could create some devastating results. After hacking into the NSA's systems, Lisbeth is attacked by a trio of men called "The Spiders", blowing up a big portion of her apartment and they take Firefall away from her. Lisbeth re-teams with journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) to recover Firefall, which leads to some startling discoveries.
I'm going to urge you not to watch the trailers for this movie because after watching the movies, it spoils more than you think. My problem with this movie that this sequel is all about the atmosphere and the tone of the story and the characters' motives than the predictable story. Nevertheless, the story is not as interesting, either, since you can pinpoint what is going to happen and who will appear later in the movie. There is also one too many stories going on. If they had dialed in with more of Lisbeth's personal story than rely on this familiar storyline surrounding this nuclear launch code program, it would have been more of tolerable psychological journey than a recycled spy action flick starring a strong female character.
I will say that the more positive element of the movie is Claire Foy's performance, as she does not imitate both Rooney Mara's or Noomi Rapace's performances of Lisbeth. Foy's performance displays conviction and confidence that propels the movie forward into a decent amount of interest, but not enough since it is ruined by a familiar storyline. Sylvia Hoeks gives a strong performance once again but I felt like she was introduced way too late in the movie. I could not tell whether Sverrir Gudnason is an upgrade from Daniel Craig in terms of chemistry but he was all right.
This movie was a letdown for me as director Fede Alvarez has made a cool and creative spy film combined with a psychological thriller, yet it lacked thrills and intrigue. It focuses more on set pieces and the strong violence that seemed to go nowhere for me except vanishing in the cold, dry space of the atmosphere. Is it timely to create a movie about a strong female character? Yes, but you need to have a much more interesting story and not rely on cliches and tone to keep the narrative going.
**
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