Luftslottet som sprängdes

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" ends the Millennium Trilogy from Swedish television.

Taking up where the second chapter left off, Lisbeth Salandar (Noomi Rapace) is in the hospital, recovering from her wounds. She's also under arrest. Her father, Alexander Zalachenko, survived and is in the same hospital. There is a move afoot to charge her with attempted murder but also to have her committed to a mental institution again.

Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is devoting a special issue of Millennium to getting justice for Lisbeth. He soon learns that the people behind attempting to silence Lisbeth will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. Mikael and Lisbeth work separately again to clear her name and keep her from being either imprisoned or committed.

Good ending to this trilogy, as it wraps up the story very nicely. Rapace's magnificent presence and total immersion into the role again dominates, with Nyqvist also excellent as Blomkvist, demonstrating his quiet determination to help Lisbeth.

Despite the pervasive dark atmosphere (which the story demands) and some really major violence in the first episode, which is not my thing, I really am very glad I watched the Swedish version of this trilogy and do not plan on viewing the American version. In fact, I'm not even sure why they're making it, except that no one in Hollywood is interested in doing anything original. The Swedish "The Girl" trio will be hard to beat.

Perspective: I am 25, Danish (thus understanding Swedish) and have not read the books.

The final movie covering Stieg Larssons Millennium trilogy ties all the pieces together and explains the deeper reasons for Lisbeth Salanders unreasonable treatment by society.

Compared to its predecessors, I found the first movie highly gripping for its unique roughness and interesting characters, while the sequel didn't really catch me due to a plain storyline and little creativity. This movie however is back on track, keeping a good pace of events and complexity.

If you have already followed Salander and Blomkvist during the previous books/movies, you will surely enjoy watching how the conspiracy is being unraveled through intense investigations and court trials. You will experience how the opposition crumble beneath Salander and Blomkvists combined efforts at exposing and confronting the deeper reasons for Salanders struggles, and how they piece the puzzle together to clear her name and taking down the shady factions of society.

The movie has a nice level of well thought out detail, but also a several logical breaches. You leave the cinema with a feeling of wanting to know much more about how the initial conspiracy evolved and how parts of the investigation (not involving the key characters) is carried out. This is likely due to the dept of Stieg Larssons books, being impossible to portrait in just 150 swift minutes. This may eventually be a teaser lurking me into reading the books.

The final film in the Millennium Trilogy and what a great film is it, right up there with it's precursors.

We learn even more about Lisbeth's, hidden organisations, and how everything is linked. The pieces of the puzzle come together, and I felt the film explained almost everything pretty cleverly, though this does involve some concentration from the viewer, because some of the links are not emphasised that well and maybe can be missed.

This is more similar to the first one, in the style of directing and also the ruthless reporting is back. Less action than the first, but no less enthralling for it. There is a lot of tension in this movie, and it made for compulsive viewing.

These three films have turned me more onto more modern Swedish Cinema. I was always a fan of Bergman and I have seen a few movies over the last few years from there, but this makes me want to keep a closer eye on the Swedish Film Making Industry. Great success guys, I look forward to seeing much more cinema from Sweden. Now I will read the books.

9/10 Excellent

I decided to go all-out and give myself the full Millennium experience by watching the TV miniseries (9 hours in total) over the space of three nights. As a result, these reviews are of the extended, three-hour editions of each film rather than the condensed, theatrical two-hour versions.

Let's just say that THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST doesn't disappoint. It finishes off the Millennium trilogy in an intelligent, emotionally satisfying way, drawing up all the themes and mysteries of the last two films. Great direction, great plotting, great acting, great cinematography...what's not to love?

I will not call this a third part in the Millennium series, since it starts exactly where The Girl Who Played with Fire left off and continues with the same story. However, if the first film was a classic mystery thriller and the second film was more of an action thriller, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest goes in the direction of a political thriller. Spies, government agencies, covert operations, etc. It successfully explains things and closes all avenues opened by the first two films.

I have to say that I felt the movie both unreal and gratifying. Trained with US films about shadow agencies that kill anyone stand in their way, I found the Swedish counterparts meek and overly cautious. But what version is the more realistic one, I have no idea. So, yes, it felt strangely different from American thrillers, but it also made sense. Clearly it has a refreshing point of view on the matter.

Bottom line: I guess there is little purpose in watching this film and not watch the other two preceding it in the trilogy. And since you liked the other two, you should see this one as well. I enjoyed it, it explained everything that was left unexplained and everybody got their share. Of course, there is still room for another Micke and Lisbeth story, but clearly with a new plot.