Review of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009) by Cameron J — 22 Mar 2012

I'm not entirely sure that it wasn't some kind of drug overdose that did Stieg Larsson in, because the dude was clearly on something when he came up with the title of this book, which, in Sweden, is actually translates as something along the lines of "The Castle of Air that was Blown up". Wow, and I thought the dragon tattoo in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" had little actual relevance to the story. Eh, maybe it wasn't a drug overdose that killed Larsson, or else they would have told us, because if they truly wanted to honor his memory, then their cover story probably wouldn't have been that he had a heart attack after walking up some stairs. I think that they just made up the conspiracy theory that it was induced by those people that sent some hate mail/death threats, because at least it makes for a less underwhelming way to go, even though it's not terribly likely. Poor Stieg; that's quite the embarassing way to go, which is why I'm going to go out like a champion and wait for them to invent commercial jet packs and space flights, strap myself with nitroglycerin and one of those aforementioned jet packs, then dive out of the space ship right before it penetrates the Earth's atmosphere and fire myself into the Grammys, finally putting an end to the tyranny of awful contemporary music for about a week, at which point, they'll have successfully repopulated, seeing as how hit musicians are popping up too much enough as it is, because they'll take whatever swill they can get their hands on; so by the future time in question, they'll be coming out with new hit musicians as quicky as they released these films apart from each other, which was about two hours each. The breaks between the releases of these films were actually shorter than the film themselves; certainly shorter than this film, which feels like it goes on forever. No, it's not at all that bad, yet there's no denying that this film hits some major speed bumps that the predecessors rarely, if ever faced.

Now, these films have never been lighting fast, yet each and every one manage to escape dullness way more often than you'd expect them to, but this time around, they actively dive for the slowness. I mean, don't get me wrong, I appreciate them trying to have more meditation, especially during the big wrap-up of this compelling tale, yet this gets to be too much. It's never tedious, but the film takes too many opportunities to slow down, and to make matters worse, they overdo it more often than, being quiet and dry to the point of being totally disengaging. Now, even in "Played with Fire", director Daniel Alfredson wasn't as consistent with his oomph in the atmosphere as Niels Arden Oplev was with "The Dragon Tattoo", but here, while he does hit plenty of high notes, hit low notes hit lower than ever and leave many things to go limp very often, from the evenness of the story to even the chemistry between our leads. Alfredson's intentions of pumping more depth and meditation into this final act to make it sharper and more satisfying are certainly very noble, yet he slipped up, and at the worst possible time... and yet, I would still consider this on par with its predecessors. Don't get too excited kids, it's just because the story is so strong, and the only reason this film isn't better than ever is because the missteps actually dilute the impact of this particularly excellent storyline. Still, it would be dropped well beneath the quality of its predecessors if it didn't have some pretty fine strengths to break even, and sure enough, for every moment in which this film slips, it quickly regains its footing.

I regret to report that the score has slipped back into genericism, as well as even repetition, yet that doesn't mean that Jacob Groth doesn't kick the jams as well as he always has, because although it all sounds a little too similiar, it's still subtle and gripping enough to transcend its familiarity and repetition and engage you every time it comes into play. As for Peter Mokrosinski's, it doesn't quite have the sweep that it had in "Played with Fire", yet it still has plenty of the subtlety that cuts deep when it has to, whether when its supplementing tension or simply drawing your eyes towards the screen. Still, the person that really pulls you towards the screen is the very man that turns you away from it, and that is director Daniel Alfredson, who's slow, dry storytelling often dilutes his noble intentions, and he should thank his lucky stars that the source material is enthralling enough to bypass his limpness, more often than not. However, there comes many a point where he can't simply rely on the story to keep you going and has to really kick things in, and sure enough, when the time comes, he shows us just what he can really do by delivering on pure intrigue, tension and even heavy intensity, the amalgamation of the two. When those glowing moments come, you're wide awake, and while those moments are far and few between, they always come in at just the right time to really set consequence in the midst of this mostly more subtle film. Now, the film stands to deliver more, but when it's all said and done, I found enough of my squandered hopes made up for me to find myself more satisfied than not, that inconsistent final act and final cop-out end notwithstanding. It certainly helped that an aspect I had hopes for, the acting, most certainly did not go unrealized, for although the characters don't always connect, due to the many limp moments in storytelling, when they do lock, it's truly compelling, which isn't to say that our characters don't keep you engaged when they're on their own. Really, at this point, it should go without saying that Noomi Rapace steals the show yet again, but hey, I'm gonna keep going on about this girl, because she's once again delivering on that charisma and presence with effortless skill, and as the Lisbeth Salander character finally casts off that shroud of mystery and reveals the answers to just about all of your questions, you find yourself really satisfied, thanks to Rapace's subtle but effective wrapping up of this compellingly mysterious and rightfully iconic lead.

As the saga draws to a close, it's hard to not feel at least a little let down by the consistent slowness and dryness that dilutes a deal of moments in resonance and sometimes even leaves you disengaged, yet it's even harder to not find yourself engaged by the style and, at times, just plain enthralled by particular glowing moments carried by an at-that-moment assured Daniel Alfredson and your usual cast of strong performers, headed by the always excellent Noomi Rapace, thus leaving "The Castles of Air-I mean "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" to stand as a very compelling final note in the "Dragon Tattoo Trilogy". No, I'm not calling it the "Millennium Trilogy", because no one cares about that stupid, plot device magazine company. Somewhere, someone's going, "Oh, so that's what Millennium is; yeah, that is a bit of stretch.".

3/5 - Good.