Movie Review - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2010)

Starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist

Directed by Daniel Alfredson
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Spoilers pertaining to the second part of this trilogy are ahead, FYI...No spoilers revealed for this film, however...

The finale of the Millennium Trilogy picks up immediately where the disappointing Girl Who Played with Fire ended.  Our heroine Lisbeth Salandar (Noomi Rapace) finds herself in a hospital after being shot in the head by her estranged father.  Seeing as how Lisbeth attacked her father with an ax, she also finds herself in police custody.  Needless to say, Lisbeth isn't the least bit pleased that her father has survived the attack.  Also not happy is Lisbeth's only friend in the media, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist).  Backed with boatloads of evidence, Mikael attempts to clear Lisbeth's name, proving that she has been part of some incredibly convoluted government conspiracy.

Fortunately, this third film is much easier to follow than number two.  Unfortunately, it's the worst crafted film of the bunch.  These flicks were made for Swedish television and this one feels like it had no budget whatsoever.  It didn't feel cinematic in the slightest.  From the dialog to the acting to the plot, it all seemed like something you'd see on a poor episode of CSI.  Even the two leading actors -- Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist -- seem bored by the whole affair.  There's no excitement to be had here and they're well aware of that fact.

In the end, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is marginally better than the middle film of the Millennium Trilogy (simply because I actually understood what was happening), but overall, the last two films were disappointing follow-ups to the series' first flick, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  In the end, I've got to say that this is a series of films that is not worth the seven hour investment.  I can honestly say that I'm not looking forward to the US remake of this at all...however, there is definite room for improvement.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+