I found this on Netflix streaming and I’m honestly not sure where else one might find this (I’ve heard rumor that in the U.S. the extended edition is available). I watched the 6-part extended edition consisting of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. The whole thing comes out to some 9 hours of story. There is no sugar-coating to be done here. This is a thoroughly brutal story with some of the most horrendous bad guys I’ve seen, and not for either the faint of heart or children under the age of 27. I’ve never read the books, now I want to, but if in typical fashion the books are even better than the movies, I’m a bit nervous about what I might find in there.
These films, in my opinion, were very well done. I’m usually not one for subtitles, but as these were all made in Sweden for the Swedish, it was necessary. Despite the subtitles, they were well worth watching. The character development was excellent. Over the course of the trilogy we find out how Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace, soon to be in Prometheus) came to be the way she is, and we’re treated to some excellent acting in the character of Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist). The story reels you in and then it’s pretty much non-stop sitting on the edge of your seat, biting fingernails the whole way. Like any story, you know in your heart that surely the good guys will prevail despite all of the awfulness they’re forced to trudge through, but the bad guys are so equally compelling that it’s not hard to imagine justice not being served. Plus, the whole thing is Swedish, so what if they don’t have our sense of happy endings?!
At any rate, these were excellent movies, well written, well acted, but be warned, they are very tough stuff to watch in a number of places. I’m also curious about the English version with Daniel Craig, as that seems to rate well, though it’s hard to imagine an English adaptation taking on some of the scenes in this one.
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