Review of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009) by Jonathan G — 31 Dec 2011

As with 'The Girl Who Played With Fire', this installment fails to live up the 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'. Also like the second film, it is not because of a lack of talented acting or scripting. Really, you could just substitute my review for 'The Girl Who Played With Fire' for this, because many of my praises/complaints are identical.

There is just no real feel of menace. The story splinters off into several unnecessary places and subplots, none of which really enhance the story. I'm also at a bit of a loss in regards to the villains, as they are all old white guys who look exactly the same and I can't really distinguish from one and other. The only antagonist who doesn't fit that profile is the Nedderman character, who is severely mishandled and turned into a cheap James Bond villain.

While they are great in their roles, the chemistry between Rapace and Nyqvist is, again, sorely lacking as they are only in a handful of scenes together. Just like the first two movies, it is filmed beautifully and expertly constructed, but the story becomes heavy and overly complicated. This really slows down the film, and the impact of its characters is dissipated greatly. Again, I did enjoy this movie, but it was definitely a shadow of its original installment.