The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Well, that was quick.  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is the third and final film in the Millennium Trilogy, based on the books by Steig Larsson; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire also had American theatrical releases in 2010.  I think it is worth pointing out that this film's title was changed for American audiences.  The Swedish title was Luftslottet Som Sprängdes, which means "The Air Castle That was Blown Up."  Okie dokie, then.


Hornet's Nest picks right when Played With Fire ended.  Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is suffering from several gunshot wounds, her evil father, Zalachenko, is suffering from gunshot wounds and an axe to the head, and her evil half-brother, Niedermann (Micke Spreitz), is trying to escape police custody.  Lisbeth and Zalachenko both reach the hospital in time to save their lives, thanks to Lisbeth's reporter friend Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) calling an ambulance in time.  While recovering from brain surgery to remove the bullet in her head, Lisbeth is charged with the attempted murder of her father.  Knowing that Lisbeth doesn't stand a chance against those charges --- with her aggressive goth-punk look, history of alleged mental illness, and cyber-criminal activities, he has a point --- Mikael decides to dedicate an entire issue of his muckraking magazine, Millennium, to proving Lisbeth's innocence.  Things get a bit more complicated when a clandestine government group decides that Zalachenko and Lisbeth must die before they have the chance to talk to the authorities.  The group makes their move and kills Zalachenko, but Lisbeth survived.  Now, this group is pulling all the strings they can to guarantee Lisbeth gets declared "criminally insane" and locked up in the asylum of their choice, attended by doctors that they can trust.  How can Mikael possibly compete with the people behind the people behind the people who stand behind the president?  By being a reporter, of course.

"Does this look like the face of a murderer?"

If you have read the books or seen the other two films, you might notice just how different each story is.  The first movie was a kind of closed-door mystery, the second was a thriller, and this one is a courtroom drama.  The direction and pacing of the movies doesn't change from film to film, but that abrupt change in genre is all the more apparent with the short span of time between the release dates of the films.  The acting in this movie is about the same as the other two; Lisbeth spends a lot of time sulking and being stubborn, so more of the narrative duties fall on Mikael.  Once again, Noomi Rapace is the best thing about the movie, even if her character spent less time active in this film, and Michael Nyqvist turned in another mediocre performance (better than last time, though).  The direction of Daniel Alfredson is simple and efficient, with little time spent on anything that doesn't propel the plot forward.

I had hoped that this film would succeed where so many other "Part 3" movies have failed.  After all, it was filmed and released in the same year as its predecessor, so there was no change in major cast or crew.  And I will give it credit for not trying to out-do the second film.  Instead of trying to top that fast-paced thriller, it opts for a Grisham-esque legal battle.  I thought that was an interesting and unexpected choice, but it ultimately didn't work for me.  The key to a good legal thriller is some sort of reveal, where a key piece of evidence suddenly shows everyone the truth.  This movie doesn't tell us anything new about Lisbeth.  If you saw the first two movies, you have every personal detail that they revealed in the courtroom.  Where were the twists?  Where was the surprise?  This was a whole movie about Lisbeth's life, and it took most of its information from the last movie.  The American title implies that Lisbeth had tempted the fates and gotten herself in trouble, but the fact of the matter is that her character was a victim the entire time.  But if you've watched any of these films, that is obvious already.

The thing that really bugged me was the complete lack of explanation why a secret government group would bother with Lisbeth.  "It's because they brought her father into the country as a Soviet defector."  Yeah, so?  I don't understand what was so dangerous about her that these men went out of their way to harm her.  I'm not saying that there was no feasible reason for this secret group to act the way they did.  I'm saying that it is not explained in the movie.  The villains don't have a motive.  That's either the worst subtitle-job ever, or the filmmakers were inept.  I'm leaning toward the latter.  Why?  Well, there are all sorts of odd details that bothered me in this movie, details that should have been caught in the script stage, but managed to make it in the final product.  For starters, an experienced secret government agent goes to the hospital to kill Lisbeth and Zalachenko; he doesn't use a silencer, a pillow, or even a 20oz soda bottle to dull the sound of the gunshot.  Everyone hears the shot, and there is enough time for someone to help protect Lisbeth.  You don't get to be an elderly covert agent without quietly killing a few people, but this moron brought an extra loud popgun for an assassination job?  That makes no sense.  Also weird: Lisbeth eats pizza by folding the tip back to the crust.  And I thought New Yorkers had it wrong.  That's not really a jab at the movie as a whole, but it bugged me.  For the courtroom scenes, Lisbeth dresses her goth-iest, complete with chains, studs, and spiked accessories.  How is someone in police custody, someone presumed to be crazy, allowed access to potentially dangerous gear?  Again, that makes no sense.

This movie isn't terrible.  The story is told clearly and it helps the characters complete something vaguely resembling an emotional arc (well, Lisbeth does, anyway).  This movie just isn't necessary.  The whole film just feels like falling action from the previous movie, wrapping up loose ends and helping Lisbeth clear her name.  I don't see a need for that to have taken more than half an hour, tops.  Maybe I would feel differently if the bad guys had known motives.  Maybe not.  This third chapter to the Millennium Trilogy is definitely the worst of the bunch.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Why are the headlights still on?

Aww, yeah!  It's Swedish sequel time!  Interesting side note: if you do a Google image search for "Swedish sequel," you may find this.  Hot on the heels of the hit Swedish-language film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the next part of the Millennium Series just hit DVD shelves.  This is the adaptation of Steig Larsson's book of the same name, which was a world-wide best seller.  The film was released just seven months after Dragon Tattoo and just two months before the final entry in the series, so you know these Swedes are trying to hit while the iron's hot.  The budget was slashed for the sequels --- it was assumed by the producers that the sequels would be direct-to-DVD, but the $100 million dollar success of the first film changed that --- which usually isn't a good sign.  How did it turn out?  Let's find out.

Over a year has passed since the events of Dragon Tattoo, and the heroine Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) returns home to Sweden after a year abroad.  She tries to keep a relatively low profile, partially because she does a lot of illegal computer hacking and partially because she is blackmailing her guardian officer (it's like a parole officer for formerly institutionalized Swedes) into giving her glowing development reviews.  As such, Lisbeth lets her friend and sometime girlfriend, Mia, stay at her old apartment, rent free.  Meanwhile, Lisbeth's old pal Mikael Blomqvist (Michael Nyqvist) and his co-workers at Millenium magazine are preparing an expose into human trafficking and prostitution.  When the reporter who is writing the article is found murdered with his wife, the police are able to trace the gun used back to Lisbeth's guardian officer.  That's good.  But he's dead and Lisbeth's fingerprints are all over the gun.  That's bad.  The police naturally start a womanhunt for Lisbeth, but they aren't the only ones looking for her; some scary dudes involved in the drug trade are also in the hunt.  Hey, Mia, I bet that free apartment doesn't sound so great now.  Mikael decides to use his investigative eye to help Lisbeth, but it is ultimately up to her to find out who has framed her and why.

Like the last film, Played With Fire is fairly plot heavy; unlike the last film, it is less of a mystery and more of a thriller.  Daniel Alfredson takes over the directing chair this time, but I didn't notice any difference in style from the first one.  So, either this is the best sequel ever for maintaining the look and feel of its predecessor, or maybe Swedes just don't have any style.  The acting in this movie is both better and worse than the last film.  Noomi Rapace turns in a far superior performance in this film; she spends some time acting, instead of just posing as a surly Goth chick.  There is almost no screen time shared between Rapace and Michael Nyqvist, which helps build up the strength of her character.  Nyqvist's performance definitely suffered without Rapace's Goth-crazy to fuel him; I would rate him at four out of five on the "dead behind the eyes" scale.  For those scoring at home, a dumb eight year-old in a calculus class gets a one, and these hacks pull a perfect five.  The supporting cast is, surprisingly, a little better this time around, with former boxer Paulo Roberto playing himself (but not Mike Tyson making a cameo, this guy had a substantial role) and Micke Spreitz essentially playing the Swedish version of Kevin Nash's Russian from The Punisher; that means that he is big and blonde, and when he gets hit, he just looks confused instead of hurt.

There is a lot to like in this movie.  I was impressed by how much Roomi Rapace improved from film to film, and I liked her character more this time around.  It helps that she's portrayed as less crazy than in the first film.  I always enjoy seemingly indestructible villains (like Spreitz), so that was fun for me, too.  There is a lot more action and violence in this movie, including some fairly realistic (and still pretty bad ass) moves from Rapace, several gunshot wounds, and somebody getting an axe to the head.  Along with the violence, this movie brings the sex, too, with a moderately graphic (by American standards) lesbian scene.  The film's pace is probably the best thing about it; a lot happens in this movie, including research, but the characters are always moving, which really helps even the slow parts seem active.

Unfortunately, pacing doesn't hide all of the movie's shortcomings.  I am all for films that want the viewers to figure out what is going on, but I didn't appreciate the vast difference between telling Mikael and Lisbeth's parts of the story.  Whenever Michael was going to do something, he explained it first to someone else, and then did it.  Lisbeth would stare at a computer screen and then abruptly choose to do something, sometimes even going to a spot where Mikael had been only a few scenes before.  Yes, I realize that Lisbeth had access to Mikael's computer and was taking information from him and applying it to her own, but I think that explanation could have been mentioned once in the film, at least; there were times where I had to figure out why she was going wherever she was going, and that was distracting.  I wasn't a huge fan of the story itself, although I liked the way it was told; when you boil things down to their core, this is a story that seems more at home in a comic book or a professional wrestling ring than in a thriller.  And, again, I wish the story depended less on Mikael to figure things out, because Nyqvist's emotional range varies from sleepy-eyed indifference to sleepy-eyed mild surprise.  Even with Rapace's performance, this movie sorely misses the feel of genuine acting, as there is little to no need for chemistry between characters when they're just running from place to place.

Overall, I think fans of the book will be just fine with this adaptation.  It is better than it should be, given the budget, and definitely feels like the next chapter in the story.  I don't think the story is nearly as strong this time around, but the frenetic pace almost makes that point moot.  I will admit, though, that I am a sucker for the thriller genre.