Film Review: The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest

Director: Daniel Alfredson

Alfredson remains in the director's chair for the third and final film in the Millenium series by the late author Steig Larsson. It continues the story from The Girl who played with Fire which finds Lisbeth Salander charged with murder despite the belief that she has been framed and works from a distance with Blomqvist in trying to reveal major corruption surrounding a man called Zalachenko and the Swedish Security Service.

Having been shot twice by Zalachenko out in the forest, Lisbeth is saved by Blomqvist who comes to the remote cottage to rescue her. She wakes up in hospital with Zalachenko just two rooms down after she hit him twice with a shovel and she has to prepare for her court case for murder as well as attempted murder of Zalachenko. Whilst this is going on Blomqvist is trying to find the major corruption in the SSS that might save Lisbeth and stop them from silencing all the parties involved.

Lisbeth walking to court under armed guard

The third film has a lot of ground to cover and races along at a quick pace which could easily leave the viewer left behind. Once again I found the tension of the books missing with the whole thing leaving me a little cold until the end. The opportunity for a fantastic finale to the trilogy on the big screen is wasted and one of the only lasting memories from the film will be Noomi Rapace who has gone on to a career in Hollywood when the film as a whole could have been so much more.

The scenes in court help you derive some satisfaction but the story leading up to this is lacking punch and anxiety which means that when the finale you want suddenly appears you aren't as excited as you should be, you don't feel yourself rooting for Lisbeth as much as you should. The other mistake in the movie is that there is little doubt of Lisbeth's guilt, in the books there is always a hint that Lisbeth could be capable of killing these people but that is omitted from the film. It leaves us with a slightly more predictable premise than the books deserve.

2/4 underwhelming and uneven conclusion to the superb trilogy.