Disappointing finale but could've been alot worse.

The Millennium trilogy has been on such a great role after two great predecessors and the final film in the trilogy is here and after loving The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire, expectations were very high for The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest but guess what? It was such a disappointment for me but I didn't hate it. Why was it disappointing? Well, first of all the film wasn't really entertaining as a film and I just felt it went a bit flat especially after a huge build-up at the end of The Girl Who Played With Fire, it surprisingly was the most complex film of the trilogy. I mean, I can handle a lot of complex films but mixing a very complex and rather un-entertaining dialogue together just didn't work. Plus, it wasn't tense, emotional or anything. In fact, I can't think of any feeling I felt about the story and pacing of the film apart from the two words ''flat'' and ''boring''.


Despite the flaws, there were some good qualities that the film had that were strong persuasions for me not to hate it. The acting once again was splendid from pretty much everybody involved, the technical qualities such as art direction, make-up and especially cinematography was very good as well but even those didn't completely save the film. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest really was unnecessarily too long and perhaps could have been about 110 minutes long, not 150 minutes!


Recovering from her wounds in hospital, Lisbeth Salander is also in police custody. Her attacker, Alexander Zalachenko, is just down the hall from her, also recovering from his wounds. At a minimum, she is to be charged with attempted murder but it is soon evident that the forces that had Lisbeth committed to a mental institution at the age of 12 would like her to again be committed for an indefinite period. Mikael Blomkvist meanwhile is preparing a special issue of his magazine, Millennium, dedicated to demanding justice for Lisbeth. Soon however, his apartment is broken into and his colleague and lover Erika is receiving e-mail threats. He sets out to unmask the conspirators who are clearly prepared to go to great lengths to silence Lisbeth and bury their secret forever.


Michael Nyqvist is a good actor don't get me wrong and has delivered three decent performances as Mikael Blomkvist but where I think he really lacked a soul in his role in this film is that he just didn't make Blomkvist act emotional towards and about Lisbeth and just didn't show that much desperation to un-cover the truth. I seriously doubt that Daniel Craig will beat Michael Nyqvist but I'm sure he'll be good nevertheless. Noomi Rapace is officially one of the most underrated living actresses especially after her outstanding performance in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, her second great role in The Girl Who Played With Fire and another good performance in The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (which is in fact the best quality that the film has). In all three films, Lisbeth Salander becomes almost a different person by acting more of a bad girl but looking less of a bad girl as the films progress. Even though her roles in the trilogy are extremely underrated, she needs a breakthrough performance in Hollywood.


Daniel Alfredson who directed The Girl Who Played With Fire really looked like he would do such a grand job with the final installment in the Millennium trilogy but I'm sorry, I think he just failed with this one. In a way, like Gore Verbinski with Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End seeing as the second installment had such a teasing end, expectations were very high for the final installment and to be honest, they both felt unusually boring and rushed. Admittedly, the script wasn't too bad but I think if they cut at least 15-20 minutes out, it truly would have been a fantastic film but.. wasn't to be.


Overall, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest became a disappointment for me but it wasn't entirely awful. Yeah, had one or two qualities which is exactly what a lot of disappointing films but is easily forgettable and it could have been a lot better. Now after seeing this, I am beginning to think that a remake is a bad idea but you never know. It was a disappointing finale but the trilogy itself is great that I really enjoyed and would watch regularly (except this one).

5/10