Millénium 3 : La Reine dans le palais des courants d'air

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.

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?

The final instalment in the series and, I have to say it was worth the wait, I watched the two previous instalments and was left with excitement and anticipation for the third. This final instalment did not disappoint it had me gripped from beginning to end with some real tense scenes and excellent dialogue between the characters, interspersed with scenes of chilling realism and tense action. This film sums up for me what Hollywood has lacked for......well years, in that special effects and action sequences although entertaining (barely) do not work unless they actually have a story that is both engrossing and also contains actors that grab you and bring you into the film. Anyway before I get on a rant this film and the whole trilogy are worth watching and I can't recommend them enough.

Excellent! In my opinion, maybe the best of the three installments of the 'Millenium' trilogy. I tend to disagree with Mr. Berardinelli's review in calling this 'an abject failure as a stand-alone motion picture', simply because it was never supposed to be a stand-alone motion picture. In Sweden, this was just part 5 and 6 of a TV Miniseries, and for being that it is excellent! My compliments to the Director, the writer and the entire cast.

Like Ebert, I also hope they manage to complete the 2 unfinished scripts by Stieg Larsson thus giving us parts 4 and 5 of this Saga. I will definitely be looking forward to it, both as books and movies!

'THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

The third part in the wildly popular Swedish crime series the 'Millennium Trilogy' (following 'THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO' and 'THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE', both released earlier this year in America and last year in Sweden and other parts of the world.) based on the successful books by the late Stieg Larson (who died in 2004 before the first book was published in 2005). The films are so successful that they're already being remade in America, the first of which is to be directed by David Fincher and star Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. This final chapter is adapted by Ulf Ryberg and directed by Daniel Alfredson, who also directed the second installment (the original was directed by Niels Arden Oplev). The title has been changed from it's original Swedish title of 'The Air Castle That Blew Up' for American audiences, like the original's title was changed from 'Men Who Hate Women'. The film once again stars the beautiful and stunning Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander (the title role) and Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist.

As the movie opens Lisbeth is being taken to a hospital for urgent care due to being shot multiple times, including a head shot, by her father at the climax of the second film. The police are awaiting her recovery so they can arrest her and charge her with the attempted murder of her father, who she struck in the head with an ax in self defense. Her freakish, abnormally strong half brother (once again played by Micke Spreitz) is also waiting to finish the job he and his father started of killing Lisbeth. It's up to her journalist friend Mikael and his Millennium magazine co-workers to clear her name and bring the conspirators against her to justice. The people out to silence Lisbeth are very powerful though and Mikael and his team soon find themselves in grave danger as well.

The film has received only mediocre reviews from critics, with many calling it a boring disappointment, but the fans so far mostly think otherwise. The packed 'Darkside Cinema' viewing I attended appeared to love it, with many cheering the film throughout and applauding the ending. I found the film to be much more entertaining and involving than reviews had lead me to believe and thought it was a very satisfactory conclusion to a great trilogy. While it doesn't quite live up to the classic original it is better than the second chapter, despite a decrease in action and violence. It's suspenseful as well as emotionally drenching and full of crowd pleasing moments. The court room drama that fills the third act is extremely captivating and emotionally involving. The directing and cinematography are superb as well as the thrilling score (once again composed by Jacob Groth). The acting is all stellar as well, especially Rapace who once again steals the show (with a character soon to become iconic). It's a well made and satisfying conclusion to an outstanding trilogy that should please almost any fan, despite what critics say.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffxjYiwLUko