June 25, 2020 – In a separate article, I explained my problems with 2018’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web. The main issue was giving Lisbeth a sister out of thin air. The Millenium series’ original author, Stieg Larsson, died after writing the first three novels. Then writer David Lagercrantz stepped in to continue the stories of hacker Lisbeth Salander and investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist.
The first three novels told the story of Lisbeth’s evil, criminal father. For the fourth novel, Spider’s Web, Lagercrantz decided to give Lisbeth a sister. The problem was, this sister was not mentioned at all in the first three novels/movies.
This seemed like a weak way to infuse an emotional element into Lisbeth’s story – a mistake made recently by others as well:
You see the pattern. These weren’t the ideas of the original writers (Fleming, Doyle, Larsson). What was the result of this lazy writing technique? The above-mentioned were the least-liked entries in their respective franchises. That’s not a surprise. How would audiences react if, in the next Superman movie, Clark Kent suddenly had a sister who’d been absent from all comics and movies to date, Ingrid Kent, who turned out to be the main villain?
Lisbeth suddenly having a sister, Camilla, is difficult to swallow for fans of the first three novels and movies. Because the sister is difficult to buy as a plot element, we have difficulty buying into the emotional tension of Spider’s Web as well. It feels too contrived, and thus it falls flat, in spite of two very talented actresses doing their best to sell it. (For the record, though, Noomi Rapace’s portrayal of Lisbeth will always be the best one, by miles.)
This fan edit was an experiment. What would Spider’s Web be like if the Camilla character weren’t Lisbeth’s sister? Imo, this helped the movie. But it also changed the movie into more of an action film, since the [contrived] family drama was taken out.
The unbelievable sister wasn’t Spider’s Web’s only unbelievable element, though. Much of the movie relies on little, implausible contrivances to advance the plot. For example, when Lisbeth is given a knockout drug, there JUST HAPPENS TO BE a bottle of amphetamines within her grasp, to counter the knockout drug. There are probably 20+ of these “super conveniences” in the movie, without which the plot cannot progress.
Even before my fan edit, Spider’s Web was considered more of an action movie than the previous films. In a Variety review, Jay Weissberg wrote that Spider’s Web “is more vested in fiery external explosions than internal pain. Fans of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium franchise won’t be pleased with the way Lisbeth Salander has been reduced to a Batgirl-like figure with a tacked-on psychological profile.”
This fan edit didn’t turn Spider’s Web into a great movie, merely an improved movie – if you dislike the contrived sister thing. And, again, it’s mostly an action movie. To see my fan edit experiment, go here.