Movie review: ‘Spider’s Web’ will take viewers for an action filled, intriguing spin

Other than for reading enjoyment, there’s no need to delve into the trio of books by the late Stieg Larsson, the first of which was “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” to be able to get into “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.” Nor is it necessary to see either the 2009 Swedish film adaptation of that first book, or the 2011 English-language remake. This film’s source material is the 2015 book of the same title, by author David Lagercrantz who, as John Gardner did with the James Bond books after the death of Ian Fleming, picked up writing the popular series after Larsson’s death.

I haven’t read that most recent book, but can safely say that the film stands on its own as a fast-paced, intricately detailed thriller. It features the two main characters from the Larsson books and the earlier films: The off-the-grid punk computer hacker and hit woman Lisbeth Salander, and the serious-minded magazine writer Mikael Blomkvist, here played by British actress Claire Foy (currently seen as Janet Armstrong in “First Man”) and Sverrir Gudnasson (who played Bjorn Borg earlier this year in “Borg vs McEnroe”).

Fair warning, though: It’s a tad confusing for the first half hour, but as pieces fall in place, it becomes as accessible as anyone will need it to be, and viewers will understand the relationships between characters, what each of their intentions is, and for what purposes who is chasing whom.

When first met, the young sisters Lisbeth and Camilla are happily playing chess, till they’re told their father wants to see them, and it’s soon made clear that the “game” he intends to play with Camilla is of the sordid variety. But it’s little Lisbeth who escapes from their dire homelife, and the film jumps forward a couple of decades, where she has turned into the tattooed, motorcycle riding, vengeance-minded righter of wrongs who also happens to know her way around many aspects of modern technology.

The story picks up well after the events of the previous books and films, but all you need to know to become acclimated is that Mikael and Lisbeth are friends, Mikael has written popular articles about her exploits, and they haven’t seen each other for a while. But when she’s offered a freelance assignment involving stealing a British-designed, American-held weapons project, as well as the National Security Agency and Swedish National Security, and then that assignment is jeopardized by a rogue group of Swedish terrorists known as the Spiders (see title), she pays a visit to her old investigative expert pal Mikael for some assistance.

It’s then that the spider web proceeds to being spun. Secrets that have been stolen are in turn stolen from the first stealer. The people they were first stolen from want them back. Frans Balder (Steven Merchant), who designed the military software program — it’s called Project Firefall — is far more involved than he wants to be. As hinted above, there will be some confusion about who is looking for what and from whom, but know that the NSA’s Special Agent Needham (Lakeith Stanfield) is a good guy ... no, wait, he might be a bad guy ... you know, it’s even hard to know how to describe Lisbeth’s categorization among the good and the bad. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of intrigue going on here among quite a parade of players, and they’re all trying to get to the center of the same thing.

There’s exhilarating action; perilous circumstances; grisly warnings about what the Spiders will do if you get in their way; a couple of absolutely soulless, demented characters; an intimate look at the craftiness, spunkiness, and toughness of Lisbeth; and an involving, engaging storyline that’s full of surprises right to the end. If it could live up to this level of all-around quality, there’s plenty of room for another entry in the series.

— Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.

“The Girl in the Spider’s Web”

Written by Jay Basu, Fede Alvarez, and Steven Knight; directed by Fede Alvarez

With Claire Foy, Sverrir Gudnason, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Merchant

Rated R