The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest/Luftslottet som Sprängdes (2009) - Alfredson's yawn-worthy Millennium conclusion

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Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, again smoking on a poster for a film, this time for Daniel Alfredson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

While avenging angel hacker Lisbeth Salander recuperates and readies herself for trial, Michael Blomkvist continues to investigate the case as a journalist and during his digging through the System reveals a secret branch of the Swedish Security Police.

 

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is written by Ulf Ryberg (Headhunters (2011)) and Jonas Frykberg (Detalker (2003)), adapting the same-titled 2007 novel by Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2005)), and directed by Daniel Alfredson (Roseanna (1993)). It is the third and final film in the Millennium trilogy, based on Larsson's Millennium novel trilogy. The original title translates to, 'the air castle that was blown up', with the 'air castle' being a Scandinavian idiom that refers to a pipe dream.

The film is tiring in length, centering on the 'section' of the Security Police, which remains deeply mystical and hazy. Just as the second film, The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009), also by Alfredson, this one drifts around. 

There are good trial scenes, and Anders Ahlbom Rosendahl (Wallander (2006, TV-series)) is good as hospital administrator and crook Dr. Teleborian. But The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest also involuntarily shows Sweden and the Swedes, (along with Michael Nyqvist's (John Wick (2014)) hero Micke), as a foolishly naive country and people. (True to reality in some ways.)

 

Related posts:

 

Millennium trilogy: The Girl Who Played with Fire/Flickan Som Lekte med Elden (2009) - Sloppy, overlong seconds 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009) - An exciting adult ride in sadism and mystery from cold cold Sweden

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: Reportedly 5.3 mil. $

Box office: 44.2 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 8.33 times its cost)

[The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest was released 27 November (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) and runs 147 minutes. Shooting took place in Sweden, including in Stockholm. The film opened #13 to an 881k $ first weekend in 154 theaters in North America, where it peaked in 208 theaters but didn't achieve a higher ranking, grossing 5.1 mil. $ (11.5 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Sweden with 10 mil. $ (22.6 %), Denmark with 9 mil. $ (20.4 %) and Norway with 5.2 mil. (11.8 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Alfredson returned with Odjuret (2012, TV movie) and theatrically with Skumtimmen (2013). Noomi Rapace (Prometheus (2012)) returned in Beyond/Svinalängorna (2010); Nyqvist in The Woman Who Dreamt of a Man/Kvinden Der Drømte Om en Mand (2010). The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is rotten at 53 % with a 5.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest?

The Girl Who Played with Fire/Flickan Som Lekte med Elden (2009) - Sloppy, overlong seconds

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An assured Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in dark, punky robes and hair smokes a cigarette against a car in flames, seemingly unworried, on this poster for Daniel Alfredson's The Girl Who Played with Fire

Renegade hacker Lisbeth Salander returns to Stockholm after a year abroad and is soon accused of 3 murders. They are related to Mikael Blomkvist's new, controversial edition of the Millennium magazine, which sheds light on human trafficking.

 

The Girl Who Played with Fire is written by Jonas Frykberg (Detaljer (2003)), adapting the same-titled 2006 novel by Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2005)), and directed by Daniel Alfredson (Roseanna (1993)). It is the 2nd film in the Millennium tilogy, based on Larsson's novel trilogy. The English title is a literal translation of the original Swedish title.

If you watch the extended 180 minute version of this, available on home video, beware that it is not only almost an hour longer than the original theatrical cut, it is also at least an hour overlong! It completely loses its suspense in its second half. Here the plot also grows foolish, SPOILER as we recognize that the film's villain is the blond ex-boxer, who is not very frightening. Along comes Salander's face-melted father, - and a half-brother who can't feel pain. The dad turns out to be a Russian spy, while Lisbeth herself can get buried alive and shot again and again - yet live!

The good opening maneuvers are lost on a fatally loose grip on the thriller, with just about every shot in the film labored with some 'fat' that should have been cut from it. Also cinematically, Alfredson's sequel is a far step from the quality and wealth of detail that enriched the fine first film. 

 

Related post:

 

Millennium trilogy: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009) - An exciting adult ride in sadism and mystery from cold cold Sweden

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 4 mil. €, approximately 4.35 mil. $

Box office: 67.1 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 15.42 times its cost)

[The Girl Who Played with Fire was released 18 September (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place in Portugal and Sweden, including in Stockholm. The film opened #11 to a 904k $ first weekend in 108 theaters in North America, where it peaked in 178 theaters but didn't achieve a higher ranking, grossing 7.6 mil. $ (11.3 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Sweden with 14.4 mil. $ (21.5 %), Denmark with 11.9 mil. $ (17.7 %) and Norway with 7.8 mil. $ (11.6 %). It was nominated for a European Film award. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Alfredson returned with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest/Luftslottet Som Sprängdes (2009), the final film in the Millennium trilogy. Noomi Rapace (Bright (2017)) returned in that film; Michael Nyqvist (Colonia (2015)) first in Bröllopsfotografen (2009). The Girl Who Played with Fire is fresh at 69 % with a 6.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Girl Who Played with Fire?