I consider this movie the natural fallout of the first
two movies in the Lisbeth Salander. The title is entirely
apropos as Lisbeth stirs up a helluva firestorm with her actions in the
prior two movies. In this installment, the natural repercussions
of her actions start to set in. Her actions, in turns out, have
uncovered a conspiracy that goes back all the way to the cold war,
and there are still those with power in the current Swedish government
that have ties to conceal that go back to that earlier
conflict. They have a lot to lose, and they come after Lisbeth to shut
her up or snuff her out.
Like the second movie in the trilogy, this movie is much
more about international intrigue than the original crime
thriller of the first. Accordingly, if you're not into that level of
story, it may be lost on you. And again, if you don't like to
read your movies, then you won't enjoy it either as this movie is
also spoken primarily in Swedish. Personally, I found
Lisbeth's character fascinating. She has led a tormented life - as you
discover over the course of the three movies, and yet is
still able to rise above it to punish those that have instigated
terrible wrongs. Lisbeth is, in a very real sense, an anti-hero.
Unlike her partner throughout these stories, Mikael Bloomkvist, her
motivations are largely driven by vengeance and egocentricity
rather than out of a sense of justice or out of a search for truth.
Watching Lisbeth and Mikael strive to reach the same ends,
while each being driven by a completely different ethos, is very
interesting to watch. And it is also interesting to watch which
alliances
each chooses to make along the way as well as the form of punishment each exacts on the bad guys.
Sadly the author of these stories, Stieg Larsson, died
before any of them could be published. He only completed three
of his originally planned ten stories, which is really a shame as
Lisbeth and Mikael are compelling characters.
Regardless, I think this trilogy is worth your time. I only hope that
Hollywood does them justice when they remake them in English over
the next few years... If you're smart, you'll watch these gems before Hollywood studio executives get a chance to butcher them.
Movie to Skip: Contract Killers
This is a silly movie. Ok, sure, it's cool that the heroine is a hot super-spy, but the believability of this
movie is extremely low. In fact, if you watch this movie, and then pop in any
Steven Seagal flick made after 2001,
you'll think the Seagal flick is a frickin' documentary level exemplar
of truth. The technology of this movie is laughable, and
the sheer lack of any real emotional response from any of the characters in this film could have made it appear
to be a study on anti-social personality disorder if it weren't for the overuse of machine gun fire and helicopter assaults (by
US secret government swat teams over numerous foreign countries...).
Was this supposed to be a serious film? Of course not. Is it intended to break up the monotony of a late weekend
evening when your Xbox stops working and you just want to watch something on the television that will put you to sleep? Mmmm...
possibly, although I'm not sure anyone honestly sets out to create that kind of schlock. It just kind of happens when someone
hands a self-absorbed moron a pen, camera and a little financial backing. Although this is better than your typical post-Zoolander
Billy Zane flick, it probably isn't that much better. You can sleep soundly if you miss this one.
