THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST
3 out of 5 stars

i had mixed feelings about this just because i was expecting something that’d tie in the events of the first book too… the acting is obviously superb, but does this movie give us TRUE closure to the trilogy? if you’ve read the books, the answer is probably no because a lot of key details were left out… :/



we left off the 2nd movie with lisbeth, our heroine, getting hospitalized after being buried alive with a bullet in her head. doctors rush to operate on her, and eventually save her AND her bastard/evil father, zalachenko. while lisbeth is recovering, mikael blomqvist asks his attorney sister annika to help her since lisbeth faces a rough trial with the charge of attempted murder on her father’s life. no one seems to know much about her past nor will she communicate it to anyone, and there’s also the mystery of why high-ranking swedish officials are soooo keen on offing everyone in her family… also, who are these ppl trying to kill lisbeth? what secrets does she possess? well… a member of the “section” (a secret group within swedish govt) assassinates her father at the hospital, which sends swedish police and mikael on high alert! there’s also the whole censorship angle, where mikael is trying to publish lisbeth’s autobiography in millenium’s latest issue, but someone in the govt is keen on stopping that as well… so, what will happen to lisbeth in the end? what will be the outcome to her trial? will she get her revenge on those who took away her rights? why don’t you find out for yourself… ;)


i felt like this was essentially treated as part 2 of girl who played with fire, which was disappointing, since this movie was suppose to bring us closure to all this madness… (in all fairness: it does but not really...) the momentum was very slow-paced (perfect for the recovery scenes), but didn’t really do it justice for preparations of the trial. plus, a lot of key details from the book were missing since i didn’t really understand how one discovery lead to another… (in other words: very choppy in editing) no, i didn’t read the books, but as a movie viewer, parts of this interpretation just didn’t work for me…  i think i would have felt better if they aired ALL the "dirty laundry" of the section's activities, lisbeth's involvement with the section, and perhaps unveil more of the elusive and mysterious nature of the character, lisbeth salander...  THAT would have done it for me, but maybe it's time to read the book to see what truly happens? ;)