The Swedish film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium’ trilogy – i.e. ‘Infatuation’, ‘Damnation’ and ‘Forgiveness’ – are particularly convincing for one reason: Noomi Rapace’s sympathetic performance as anti-heroine hacker Lisbeth Salander. The American remake of “Verblendung” from 2011 had to do without Noomi Rapace (although Rooney Mara didn’t do a bad job either), but impressed again with a hyper-accurate production from master director David Fincher (“Gone Girl” ) …
… but instead of an American sequel to “Verblingung” there was a reboot in 2018.conspiracy“ – and despite the promising leading actress and promising director, there is more than just that no reason to tune into ZDF today, September 11, 2023 from 10:15 PM. On the contrary, there is actually a very good reason to leave it alone!
Superheroine instead of antiheroine
The ‘Millennium’ trilogy itself was not published until after the author’s death. But while Stieg Larsson wrote the first three novels himself, the fourth part ‘Conspiracy’ is based solely on his notes and sketches, which were later adapted into another novel by journalist David Lagercrantz.
Hollywood executives will certainly have liked that Lisbeth Salander is even more central to the plot than in the original trilogy. After all, the Goth hacker is the cult figure of the series par excellence – and with “The Crown” star Claire Foy A promising actress was then hired for the iconic role…
…and yet director Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead,” “Don’t Breathe”) apparently didn’t understand what made the character so appealing to millions of fans. Even more than the iconic look, the fractures and ambivalences play an important role – a true anti-heroine. But in ‘Conspiracy’ Lisbeth Salander becomes a smooth character – and that is not cool or powerful, but just quite boring.
Interchangeable action thriller
‘Conspiracy’ in particular could have used a strong Lisbeth Salander – because the rest of the film, in which the hacker argues with her presumed dead sister Camilla (Sylvia Hoeks) about a computer program for cracking the global nuclear power plant codes, also turns out to be the same. to be Completely interchangeable ready-made Hollywood action thriller.
So it’s no wonder the reboot is happening as well turned out to be a huge flop at the box office: In the US it only grossed a paltry $14 million and in Germany it only reached number 139 for the year with a paltry 104,000 viewers!