The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009)

The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009)

So here we have the sequel to the Swedish (original) version of the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (TGWTDT), not the Daniel Craig remake one that for some reason folks are supposed to be excited about. Much like the American version of "Let The Right One In" I am generally uninspired by Americanized versions of films made solely to pander the masses that are either ignorantly unwilling or threatened by watching something with subtitles. I mean I get it, the books are successful, which is great. But the people that are buying the books are obviously literate types who should be able to appreciate the Swedish version of the story right? I mean it takes place IN SWEDEN. Or is there really a multitude of people out there that are all sitting around thinking, "Damn that cover of that book looks mighty intriguing. I can't wait till they make it into a movie despite not knowing anything about it because I stopped reading when it was no longer necessary for school." As per usual, I digress.

The sequel continues where the TGWTDT leaves off with Lisbeth off on a much needed vacation and Mikael continuing to be the "celebrity" author for Millenium magazine. The party is short lived as Lisbeth catches wind that her rapist guardian (of sorts) is neglecting certain respects of their arrangement so she returns to set him straight. Unbeknowst to her, events are set into motion that bring her past into the present and before long we are witnessing a cat-and-mouse game to find out who is responsible for the deaths of a man and woman with ties to Mikael's magazine.

I won't go into much more detail as either you've seen the first flick and you are familiar with certain characters, or you haven't seen the first film, in which case I would be wondering why you'd be starting with the second film of a trilogy. I will say however that TGWPWF shares a lot in common with films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Namely in the the first film worked as a decent standalone film, and it had a clear-beginning-middle end. You were introduced to the characters and the mystery was the primary story, and despite Lisbeth being an intriguing character nothing (save for the very end of the film) really suggests that the story NEEDS to continue into a trilogy. Much like the first Pirates film. Then you have the second film, with essentially only the characters tied back to the first film, you introduce a new story, new characters, but having dived full on into trilogy mode now, the story lacks punch and quite noticeably an ending. Much like the second Pirates film. Ah the curse of middle films in trilogies.

The good: Lisbeth is interesting enough to warrant a trilogy of films and because of Noomi Rapace's commitment to the character, I guess I just feel that an Americanized version is kind of insulting to her. But good to hear she's getting enough props to be the female lead in the next Sherlock Holmes flick with Robert Downey Jr. The giant borderline albino in the film is also intriguing enough despite the little material the actor has to play with, and the obvious correlations people will make to the DaVinci Code.

The bad: I don't really care for Mikael both as a character and the actor portraying him. We're supposed to believe the guy is a hot celebrity in Sweden but I think they may have different standards of what makes people attractive. Especially since several times we are told how ugly Lisbeth is supposed to be. Um pardon? The story is also hurting from the sequel curse. People are introduced and just as promptly forgotten about, and story threads are left dangling as well. I also didn't find myself very intrigued by the whole premise like I did the first film, which was much more of a traditional mystery whodunit. In this one the only real tension was at the very end, too little too late and only serves to leave on a cliffhanger for the final film.

Final Thoughts: I can't help but wonder the thought process behind wanting to make trilogies. Why not just make two films to tell the story, as inevitably (with very few exceptions) the middle story is usually lacking and subpar to the first and third tales to be told. In literature it's different and you can explore more themes and plots than film allows for, and usually doesn't suffer to the same degree. Also, as far as titles go, this title is wasted on such a mediocre film. With the conclusion being called "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" it fails on the WOW spectrum as far as titles go.

Add to the Vault? No. Maybe if the 3rd film is insanely good and they are sold as a box set, but as of right now the second film feels like it could have been largely a montage intro to the 3rd film at best. I don't have too much interest in owning the first film either, but I do regard it to be the more superior film of the two so far.


Without further adieu, the trailer for The Girl Who Played With Fire: