Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy: Films (2009)

The Extended Editions (2009)

The standard theatrical versions of the trilogy that were first released into the English and American markets were really good, but the eventual release of the extended Swedish language editions in a single box set (DVD or Blu-ray) made my day. It brought with it an additional 120 minutes of footage, two whole hours of extra story! That's 120 minutes in total, not 120 minutes each.

Each film was split into two parts lasting approximately 90 minutes each, enabling them to more easily fit into a TV schedule.

I'd have preferred the split be a simple fade-to-black intermission, but the separation isn't really that much of a problem and I admit that I made use of it each time to get a refill.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Dir. Niels Arden Oplev

Part one introduces the two key players, namely Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), a researcher/computer hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), a journalist for a Swedish magazine that's unafraid to print the truth even when it proves unpopular.

The casting is perfect. Nyqvist is able to portray a man with a reservoir of resolve that isn't endless but is deeper than most. Rapace perfectly embodies a woman with a troubled past, even down to the way she walks. She goes the extra mile more than once to make Lisbeth feel frighteningly real.

Their attitude toward life is different but they share an investigative drive, and ensuring a perpetrator pays for his/her crimes, especially when the victims are unable to take action themselves, is a large part of it.

Viewers should know prior to watching that there's occasional scenes of sexual violence. They're essential to the story and to deepen characterisation, they're not included just for gratification or to be controversial for the sake of it, but they will be disturbing for some people.

The Girl who Played with Fire (2009)

Dir. Daniel Alfredson

Millennium journalist Mikael Blomkvist begins researching a story about Eastern European sex trafficking, which is the key to opening up a dangerous can of worms.

When the worms have secrets and guns, things quickly spiral out of control.

Lisbeth has her own troubles, but being Lisbeth means she soon finds more, bringing her into the same line of fire as Mikael. The pair travel in different circles, but the circumferences eventually intersect.

The majority of the story explores Lisbeth's past and in doing so goes some way to explaining her current situation and reluctance to trust even those she considers friends.

The measurable danger level is higher than before because the person under investigation wants desperately to stay in the shadows. As the truism states: desperate men do desperate things.

Unlike the previous film, Played with Fire doesn't have a proper ending. A number of events are left hanging, not resolved until the third and final film (see below).

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)

Dir. Daniel Alfredson

Part three is itself split into three distinct parts: the post-trauma of the previous film's ending; the pre-trial information gathering by Blomkvist and the Millennium employees; and finally a courtroom scene. There's a coda that wraps up a few loose ends, but those three aspects are the main draw.

New characters are introduced, old men who had previously been comfortably anonymous.

The digging into their shared transgression forces them out of retirement, bringing with it consequences that test the character of everyone connected to the Salander case.

Even though all three films are just over 180 minutes in length, none of them feel like it. I've never once experienced the halfway-point wane or impatient stirrings that some other films give rise to. It's fair to say that Played with Fire and Hornet's Nest aren't as gripping as Dragon Tattoo, but that's only because part one is exceptional. If you remove from the equation the urge to make a comparison, then parts two and three are top-class films in their own right.