RECENT WATCHES: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy became a global literary phenomenon by combining hot button real world political issues, with page-turner plotting and topping it off with an unforgettable goth girl protagonist. Of course, Larsson's untimely passing meant that the true master plan for his characters and their story would never exactly be told. Of his intended ten novels, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest” is the last one Larsson would complete before his death. The film adaptation would follow in December of 2009, a mere three months after the film version of “The Girl Who Played with Fire.” (Making this one of the shortest gaps between sequels.)

After being shot in the head by her evil dad – and subsequently attempting to kill him with an axe – Lisbeth Salander is airlifted to a hospital. Her father, a defected Russian spy a secret sector of the Swedish government has promised to protect, is kept in the same hospital. After Zala threatens to reveal those secrets, he is killed by an elderly assassin who then turns the gun on himself. The Sector uses its resources to engineered a legal case against Lisbeth, to get her locked away forever and prevent the truth from ever coming out. Mikael Blomkvist and the staff of Millennium do everything they can to ensure Lisbeth's story is actually told. Meanwhile, Ronald Niedermann – Lisbeth's towering Neo-Nazi half-brother – still stalks the streets of Stockholm. 

The first two Millennium films told stories about the exploitation of women. Depending on your perspective, this was either an attempt to bring this important topic to light or a way to make pulpy thrillers seem more relevant than they actually were. While essentially still about that, especially after Lisbeth's rape by her legal guardian becomes a plot point here, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest” is more squarely about government corruption... But not real world government corruption. The third in the series moves totally into the realm of conspiracy thriller, as a top secret sect of elderly agents are revealed to be behind all the woes in Lisbeth Salander's life. I guess it was inevitable that these stories would grow more outlandish as the series progressed.

All three of the Swedish Millennium films are breathlessly faithful to the source material, getting things down to a semi-manageable length by removing Larsson's more extraneous subplots. That was a big problem with “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.” The book rambled off on extensive digressions about the history of Cold War Sweden, intrigue at Millennium magazine, and Blomkvist getting a new hot bodybuilder girlfriend. All this shit is cut out of the movie and it improves things considerably. Erika Berger, Blomkvist's other girlfriend and editor at Millennium, being stalked and harassed is tied more concretely tied in with the main plot. Niedermann, who weaved in and out of the book at random intervals, is given more to do here, more concretely becoming the film's primary antagonist. 

This greatly improves upon a novel with a painfully slow pace, making for an overall punchier movie... But there's still a problem. See, Lisbeth herself is once again sidelined for most of “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.” This is an inevitable result of her recovering in a hospital from a wound that should've been fatal. After that, the film becomes a legal thriller, as the bad guys attempt to build up evidence that Lisbeth is delusional. The film does everything it can to make this set-up exciting. Watching Lisbeth tear through the holes in the prosecutor's story is pretty satisfying. There's also a sequence where Blomkvist and Berger are nearly machine gunned while at a restaurant. Yet there's only so much that can be done with a largely stationary story.

Once the legal proceedings are out of the way, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest” can move towards an exciting finale. The confrontation between Lisbeth and Niedermann is an especially tense one. She's a rail thin, five foot tall punk rocker and he's a seven-foot tall Aryan psychopath who literally can not feel pain. (The producers originally wanted Dolph Lundgren for the part, incredibly on-the-nose casting that would've been Lundgren's first role in his native country in years. The more-than-capable Mikael Spreitz was cast instead.) Naturally, Lisbeth can outsmart her brawny opponent, a satisfying match-up to watch. Daniel Alfredson's direction has improved since the second film and this showdown looks nicely atmospheric.

After that compelling conclusion, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" abruptly ends. Presumably the author had a more complete ending in mind for Salander and Blomkvist some day. The terse passing of words and nods, something clearly unsaid between them, will have to do. More satisfying than the middle chapter, the final entry in the original Millennium trilogy still trails behind the first Lisbeth Salander adventure. No matter how fascinating Salander may be, perhaps she still worked best as simply a component in a larger pulp story. [6/10]