The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is an acceptable final chapter in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy and best as the showcase for Noomi Rapace’s final performance as Lisbeth Salander. If you’ve seen the first two movies, you should complete the trilogy by seeing this film.
Yet director Daniel Alfredson (who also directed the second film, The Girl Who Played With Fire) lets the film plod to its climax. Considering that Alfredson had a great page turner of a story and a singular performance from Rapace, it’s kind of amazing that he let his two movies drag.
This wasn’t a problem with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Niels Arden Opley. That movie popped off the screen. After Dragon Tattoo, I was worried that the Hollywood remakes would dumb down the story and soften Lisbeth. But now, I’m really looking forward to the American versions directed by David Fincher, and starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. It’s easy to see how Fincher will improve the pacing of the second and third films in particular.
As with the first two films, Hornet’s Nest centers on Rapace’s Lisbeth, a tiny fury of a Goth hacker, damaged and driven. Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.
I agree, it was a bit slow in places and still well worth it. They did a good job incorporating much of the details from the book and the story flowed and made sense!