Lackluster entry in the Millennium film series: A solid performance by Claire Foy (First Man, Unsane) can't do much to elevate a weak script that, quite often, not only asks you to suspend your disbelief, but to abandon your disbelief altogether. This film is based on the fourth of five books (to date) in the popular "Millennium" series of novels, which happens to be the first of the books written by author David Lagercrantz after the passing of original author Stieg Larsson. The first three books were adapted into a trilogy of films in their native Sweden (all of which were released in 2009), and the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was given an American adaptation helmed by David Fincher in 2011. The story of the newest entry in the film series revolves around a top-secret program called Firefall, which would allow whoever wields it to take control of the world's nuclear weapons. The program was designed by Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant), who has a young autistic son. Balder, having come to realize that the program is too dangerous for any government to control, contacts super-hacker Lisbeth Salander (Foy), asking for her help to find and destroy the program. Unknown to them,however, a mysterious group known only as the Spiders are also after the program. Salander receives help along the way from good friend Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason), a journalist wo…

While I enjoyed this film, it was a bit of a disappointment compared to the others in this series. As noted by other reviews, the film is haunted by an incredibly poor script. On the other hand, the action is pretty good if you can tolerate the long, poorly scripted scenes in between. The film tries too hard to surpise us with twists, some of which are predictable and others which are just flat. Some of the circumstances in the film are far-fetched. I don't mind suspending belief a bit, but this is neither a fantasy or a science fiction film, so there should be some reasonable level of reality. Several scenes are just ridiculously beyond reason and logic. Claire Foy is an excellent actress and I like watching her. She did the best she could with this script. It's unfortunate that the directors chose to portray her as a bit haggard and completely without sex appeal. Certainly, the character of Lisbeth Salander is intended to be a nonconforming ruffian, but Claire Foys' depiction of her is considerably rougher than Rooney Mara's and far less sexually-charged than Noomi Rapace's. This is a shame as Claire Foy does have sex appeal; she either chose or was not encouraged to to use it here. It's an acceptable addition to this series, but it's mediocre in comparison to it's predecessors.

77/100 Lisbeth gets hired to steal a computer program from the NSA setting off a series of events that involves the US, Sweden, the creator of the software, his son, a journalist, and the Spiders that are connected to Lisbeth's past. Having seen the first film, and the Swedish, Tattoo, Fire, and Hornet, this one had a lot to live up to and they did nicely! Exceptionally well-crafted film and extremely smart with solid characters and realistic action. I'm amazed at how all 3 actresses have played Lisbeth well enough to easily accept the character as the same. Awesome! -- DrNostromo.com

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