toll-8
The third instalment of the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest dives further back into Lisbeth Salander's past and gives us a slight idea into why she is the way that she is. As interesting as this could be it ultimately ends up being the story's major weakness. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a fantastic movie, mainly down to the mismatched leads, their chemistry and the intriguing demeanour of one of cinema's most fascinating characters, however by picking away Salander's layers we remove that mystery that ultimately made her so great. At the start of the movie she spends a lot of time in a hospital gown and it is only when she gets her 'superhero' moment (you know that one when you finally see Batman for the first time), dressed as the punk goth that we know, that you can breath a sigh of relief. The story is much slower than the previous ones and it does finally ramp in when the court case of Salander's murder accusations finally kicks in. There is still tension and frights but Salander as a character doesn't drive this film like she did before. When Blomkvist and Salander were investigating an outside case the narrative bubbles but when it shifts to closer to home the tone differs and is less appealing. The second and third instalments could be from a different trilogy apart from a couple of vital scenes. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest still has plenty to saviour. The fact it is still made on a shoestring budget despite the first film's success is remarkable and the performances are still on form however it only goes to highlight how much you will yearn to rewatch the first film again. Long-winded, slightly messy and unevenly concluded but worth a watch solely for Salander and Rapace's once again brilliant performance.
andrednz
It took me almost a year to finish the book. They almost doubled the number of characters but, although the names are barely mentioned here, even the most interesting become flat characters. Figuerola is nothing. The thrilling situation involving Erika Berger being stalked in her new job becomes a mere footnote. The passionate debate between Teleborian and Annika Giannini is short and tedious in the movie. Not to mention the Tom and Jerry like chase made out of the fight between Salander and Niederman... Daniel Alfredson and two screenwriters managed to turn a necessary sequel into something really hard to watch. It took me 3 nights to watch this movie. Good pick for insomniacs.
Leofwine_draca
I decided to go all-out and give myself the full Millennium experience by watching the TV miniseries (9 hours in total) over the space of three nights. As a result, these reviews are of the extended, three-hour editions of each film rather than the condensed, theatrical two-hour versions.Let's just say that THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST doesn't disappoint. It finishes off the Millennium trilogy in an intelligent, emotionally satisfying way, drawing up all the themes and mysteries of the last two films. Great direction, great plotting, great acting, great cinematography...what's not to love?
UnknownRealmsDotNet
While this final act isn't really necessary in "The Girl..." Trilogy (aka The Millennium Trilogy), it brings all the loose ends together and makes everything all nice and taken care of. Frankly I found some of it hard to follow (a lot of 'who is this guy again?'), but it was nice to see elements from the first film finally come to fruition here. As with the previous installment in the series, the direction was fairly bland here, not really using any techniques to heighten the suspense (or really lack there of) or connect the audience with the characters. I can only remember seeing one dolly/zoom that attempted to emphasize the emotions of a character and accent an important detail. On top of that, there are many elements of the story that felt unnecessary. For example, Neidermann's character felt completely irrelevant in this film. The story here would have been tighter without that element because his plot isn't related at all to what is happening (and after the main story has been resolved, the movie goes on another 30 minutes just to take care of his character). But seeing this is trying to follow the book and wrap up all various elements, I guess it can't be left out. As it is, for fan's of the series, TGWKtHN is a mediocre addition to the saga of Lizabeth. For all others, this isn't a 'must see.'
AD
