THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB
ROBIN HOOD (12A) (15)
T★★★★★
HE men are far from merry in director Otto Bathurst’s gung-ho action adventure, which canters through the blood-soaked origins of the English folk hero before he gives serious thought to riding through glens or stealing from the rich.
“Forget what you think you know. This is no bedtime story,” booms a voiceover narration which accompanies the derring-do on horseback and daredevil acrobatics in a bygone Nottingham torn apart by the unholy union of state and church.
Action set pieces are reminiscent of the Assassin’s Creed video games, employing slow-motion to excess as leading man Taron Egerton performs bone-crunching somersaults while firing arrows with his trusty bow.
Ben Chandler and David James Kelly’s script allows Egerton to recycle his charm and swagger from the Kingsman films while co-star Ben Mendelsohn embraces the pantomime season as a
★★★★★
ALMOST a decade after Noomi Rapace took on the role of emotionally damaged hacker Lisbeth Salander, The Crown actress Claire Foy becomes the third actress (after Rooney Mara in 2011) to wage war on abusive men as Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s avenging angel.
Adapted from the fourth book in the Millennium series, Taron Egerton as Robin Hood slippery Sheriff of Nottingham.
Tim Minchin tries to provide comic relief as Friar Tuck but there are few opportunities to play for genuine laughs.
The Sheriff of Nottingham (Mendelsohn) issues a draft notice to Lord Robin of Loxley (Egerton) to fight in the Crusades in Arabia.
During four gruelling years away from his sweetheart Marian (Eve Hewson), Robin is battle-hardened by his experiences under Commander Guy Gisbourne (Paul Anderson).
Robin witnesses brutality which was penned by David Lagercrantz after Larsson’s death, The Girl In The Spider’s Web sees computer scientist Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant) hire Lisbeth to gain illegal access to the servers perpetrated by the English against enemy prisoners and defies his comrades to protect a Moor called John (Jamie Foxx), whose son is tortured by Gisbourne’s underlings.
Robin returns to Nottingham in disgrace and learns that the Sheriff has falsely reported his death and seized his assets. A grief-stricken Marian is now in the arms of impassioned community leader Will Tillman (Jamie Dornan), who speaks for the common folk in disputes against the Sheriff.
Heartbroken and enraged by the hand that fate has dealt of the National Security Agency (NSA) and steal his FireFall application. Lisbeth’s actions attract the attention of NSA agent Edwin Needham (Lakeith Stanfield), who travels to Sweden to retrieve the stolen software and bring the hacker to justice.
The theft is complicated when masked assailants storm Lisbeth’s hi-tech lair and leave her for dead.
The bruised heroine re-establishes contact with journalist Mikael Blomkvist him, Robin trains with John to overthrow the Sheriff, whose war taxes have impacted the poorest in society.
Robin Hood is a solid and well-executed romp, which is clearly intended as the opening chapter of a franchise.
Egerton copes admirably with the physical demands of the lead role and he catalyses a gently simmering screen chemistry with Hewson.
Unlike its dashing hero, Bathurst’s film doesn’t hit all of its intended targets but it comes close enough to entertain for almost two hours. (Sverrir Gudnason) who exploits personal connections to the deputy director of Swedish National Security, to identify the attackers.
Lisbeth follows a trail of evidence and realises that the brilliant mind of Balder’s autistic son August (Christopher Convery) is the key to cracking the case.
The Girl In The Spider’s Web is a slickly executed thrillerby-numbers, that resuscitates the franchise with a whimper rather than a bang.