Millennium

Okay, so I came late to the party, but the Millennium trilogy became this summer's read. I was a little intimidated by three books which are 600 to 700 pages in length each, but after The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo finally picked up the pace and became a "page-turner", the last two books went very quickly. Ultimately, The Girl Who Played With Fire became my favorite of the three.

So next I started watching the films beginning with the American version of TGWTDT. It was really good, but in my reading of the book I envisioned Liam Neeson, not Daniel Craig. Then I watched the first of the Swedish films. I was kinda surprised at how different they were and I preferred some things about the Swedish version, but I thought the American version was a little better overall.

Then I picked up The Girl Who Played With Fire on DVD at my local BlockBuster (like I said, I came a little late to the party). Since TGWPWF was my favorite of the three books, I was crushed when I saw how badly they had chopped up the story and action.

At this point, I started browsing IMDb.com for background info on the film and came across a member's comments about a 6-part Swedish mini-series. Apparently, the original intention was to present the trilogy as six 90-minute episodes on Swedish television, but the money-making potential for a theatrical release became too great. So everything was re-edited into three feature length films.

The kicker is this guy says that TGWPWF lost an hour of its original footage on the cutting room floor. Now I gotta get a look at the mini-series version, but my BlockBuster (yes, we still have one) doesn't carry it. So I ask a friend who isn't as cheap as me, to look it up on her NetFlix account. HOORAY! It's available for streaming! I bring the food and she supplies the wine and we sit through the middle three hours of the Millennium Trilogy (parts 3 & 4).

OUTSTANDING!!!! I mean not quite as good as the book (production values, casting, etc.), but soooo much better than the Swedish theatrical release. I mean absolutely no comparison with the other version.

I'm a glutton for punishment. So the next night I watch TGWKTHN on Blu-ray (Hey…how come it's in 4:3 format? Oh yeah…filmed for TV.) Really good. Liked it lots.

One more night, back over to my NetFlix friend's place with dinner and watched episodes 5 & 6 of the trilogy. I gotta admit that the 3rd book was my toughest read. I thought it bogged down in all the SAPO Swedish Secret Police minutia. Well, turns out so did episode 5 & 6. They were good and the background info was helpful, but the pacing (like the book) made it a slow-go. Without spoiling it the final 45 minutes are excellent, but it's a long way to go to get there.

I'm a little burned out on Millennium right now, so I'm not gonna go back and watch those first two TV episodes 1 & 2 for a while yet. But when I do, it will be interesting to see if they improve upon the original Swedish theatrical release version of TGWTDT.

In summary… 1. I liked both the American and Swedish versions of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, with a small preference for the American version. (I'm a motorcycle guy, so I definitely liked her vintage bike better.) 2. The theatrical release of The Girl Who Played With Fire is crap. Bypass this one for episodes 3 & 4 of the Swedish TV mini-series. 3. I'll give the nod to the theatrical release of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, but not by much. If you really liked all the SAPO details from the book, then go for episodes 5 & 6 of the mini-series.

At this point, I can't wait to see how the American versions of the 2nd and 3rd films turn out. These two books are really just one extended story, so I hope they film them simultaneously and bring them out pretty close together.

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.

Wow. I loved it. I'm not a huge fan of the crime genre, and I haven't read the books, but MILLENNIUM is a difficult series to fault. It's a mature and mannered piece of film-making, dealing with adult and taboo themes and wrapping the reader up in a realistic and conscious mystery yarn.

Despite the slow pacing, the miniseries is thoroughly engaging. Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace are both excellent leads, bringing to life fully flesh and blood characters who engage the reader's sympathy and emotions throughout. The thriller aspects of the story are exciting and as a whole this is a mature and fully developed piece of work. The original storyline is built upon and expanded in a decent way.

There are slow spots and weaker moments that could have been done better, but overall this is an intelligent, emotionally satisfying mystery yarn. Great direction, great plotting, great acting, great cinematography...what's not to love?

Everytime they changed something from the books, I was a bit dissappointed and sometimes evem frustrated. Also the characters even the main ones fall short to the ones from the book. But when you look at it just as a movie-trilogy it is told in a captivating way, with a good pacing and good actors. The last one was my personal favourite of the three.

I haven't read the books so can't comment on how faithful this 9 hour version is compared to the 3 theatrical release versions. However, I understand them to be largely faithful. It has been over 10 years since I first watched the Girl films, but the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remains one of my favourite films ever. The hollywood remake was also perfect, however, for its Swedish origins and a more perfect Lisbeth in Noomi Rapace, the original remains as good as ever. With 30 minutes more footage in it, this first story felt even better, especially the first 90 minutes which is better paced and we see more of Lisbeth and Michael working together and more detail about how they solved the crime. So if you are going to watch the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo then watch the version in this miniseries, it is better than the theatrical release.

Similarly, if you are going to watch the other two movies, then it is better to watch the extended versions available in this series as the pacing is better and explanation of the plot (which can get intricate at times) is clearer. However, in my opinion the 2nd and 3rd stories just don't live up to the quality and entertainment of the 1st one. This is a criticism of the source material probably rather than this adaptation. Everything that I and others love about Dragon Tattoo is the mystery, as well as the fledging relationship between Lisbeth and Michael. The 2nd and 3rd stories have much less mystery and virtually no character development between Lisbeth and Michael as they have very little time spent together. Nevertheless, as a fan of the first story and therefore the characters, it is interesting to see more unfold about Lisbeth's back story and how her friends work together to protect her from evil forces.

Dragon Tattoo: 10/10 Played with fire: 8/10 Hornets nest: 7/10.

As much as I loved the original film adaptation, and I definitely loved that, the six episode Swedish mini-series contains much more information, much more emotional depth and breadth, and is a much more rewarding experience for the viewer.

Even the addition of long slow closeups of Lisbeth Salander are filled with meaning, emotion, and add greatly to our understanding of her character and her history. Noomi Rapace knocked this one right out of the park. Often, her performance was so strong I found myself actually holding my breath.

With the additional scenes, not footage, by the way, actual intended scenes, we get more of the investigations, and that proves ultimately to be so much more rewarding.

The "Millennium Trilogy" may just end up being my all time favorite adaptation of one of my all time favorite series of novels.