Having been completely gripped,by the unforgettable first part of this trilogy,I was right on the edge of my seat with my anticipation for the second film.When the second part in this trilogy arrived at my door,I almost ran to my DVD player!.And now with having watched this movie a few times,I feel that whilst it is noticeable slower than the first part,it is still a pretty worthy follow-up,that is able to add an impressive amount of background depth,to the fantastic characters. plot:
After both having solved a case about a missing girl, investigated journalist Mikael Bloomkvist and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander have drifted apart,and have not spoken to each other for over a year.During this time,Lisbeth has been trying to get away from her very abused past,by travailing around the world.When she realises that her "welfare officer" (who Salander secretly recorded raping her) is not filling in the forms that he is meant to,so that she is about to receive some cash,she decides to pay him a visit..
Meanwhile,some new reporters at the investigation journalism Millennium Magazine that Mikael edits ,have given the magazine staff a huge amount of secret documents about the sex trafficking of young woman into the country,so that they can be used as "slaves".One of the main important revaluations in the documents,is that some of the highest ranking police offices and judges are are involved in the trafficking of the girls.With the report seeming to be very accurate (the two journalist have spent over four years investigating the case) Bloomkvist decides that after he has talked to some of the people that are mentioned in the documents, (so that he may be able to get some information out of them, about people who are higher up the chain of command.) that the next issues of the Millennium Magazine will publish the articles. With having visited her "welfare officer",and having heard that some people are trying to get hold of records,which are about the time that she spent in a mental hospital,Lisbeth threatens the officer,and decides to take his gun.As Bloomkvist gets ready to finalise the publishing of the report,he gets a call from the reporters saying that they have been doing more research,and that they think that they have found something very interesting..When Mikael goes to visit the reporters,to discover what they have uncovered,he instead finds that they have both been brutally murdered. Whilst the police look for the murder weapon,they discover that Salanders "welfare officer" has been shot dead,and that the fingerprints on the gun found at the scene belong to Lisbeth.
Due to the bullets from the gun,matching the bullets that killed the two reporters,the police decide to attempt to charge Lisbeth Salander for a triple murder.After finding out that the police are trying to find her,Lisbeth decides to go "underground" by living in secret buildings that are on the outskirts of the city,whilst her on-again-off-again girlfriend lives in her former residency. One night,when Salanders girlfriend is walking down a street,she gets grabbed and pulled into a van by a man who seems to feel no pain at all.As she gets forced in,a boxer (Paolo) who is a mutual friend of Salander and Mikael sees what is happening and decides to follow the man. After a tough battle,where they almost die,Paolo and Lisbeths girlfriend are at last able to escape.When Paolo tells Bloomkvist about the "Blonde Hulk" that almost killed them,Mikael decides to investigate,to try and find out the identity of the man.Whilst Bloomkvist tries to find out as much as he can about the man,he discoverers that the "Blonde Hulk" may be trying to hide some extremely disturbing details about Salanderes childhood,that involves very senior members of the police and the government
The screenplay: writer Jonas Frykberg makes the structure of the film surprisingly similar to the second Lord Of The Rings films (The Two Towers),with the two plot lines of Salander and Bloomkvist,having both of the characters trying to reach the same conclusion, (in the same way as Towers,where the three main plot lines show the characters trying to reach the same destination in three very different styles)and whilst this does allow Frykberg to give the Lisbeth Salander character some extra depth,by having Mikael look into Salanders past,which allows for some very interesting flash-back scenes to show the troubles that Lisbeth has had to face since she was in her very early teens.
The only problem with the idea,of not having the two main characters meet up at all for (most) of the film,is that the fantastic chemistry that the characters (and the actors) share,which helped to make the first part feel so strong,is sadly completely left out in this film,which sadly makes the movie lose some adrenaline-powered moments,that would have helped to make the films plot move at a more break-neck speed. Thankfully,the performances are still able to reach up to the high standard of the first part.With Noomi Rapace giving another stunning performance as Lisbeth Salander.
For this film, director Daniel Alfredson allows for Noomis feminine beauty to be shown in a good part of the second section of the film,as Rapace shows Salanders desperation to try and remain in hiding,whilst finding out who is setting her up for the murders. For the main sex scene,and the very last scene of the film,Alfredson smartly expands on some of the ideas in the previous part,with Salander being very masculine and dominant during the bed room scene with her girlfriend.And for the last 15 minutes of the film,Rapace and Alfredson astonishingly show Salander turn into a brutal and intelligent force,who even when left to decay and rot,having been completely broken,is still able to get her batted body to rise up to fight back at the people that have tried to destroy her life,ever since her childhood. Although noticeably slower than the unforgettable first part,this is still an extremely enjoyable drama- thriller,that along with some fantastic performances,gives a huge amount of extra depth to the amazing characters.
After both having solved a case about a missing girl, investigated journalist Mikael Bloomkvist and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander have drifted apart,and have not spoken to each other for over a year.During this time,Lisbeth has been trying to get away from her very abused past,by travailing around the world.When she realises that her "welfare officer" (who Salander secretly recorded raping her) is not filling in the forms that he is meant to,so that she is about to receive some cash,she decides to pay him a visit..
Meanwhile,some new reporters at the investigation journalism Millennium Magazine that Mikael edits ,have given the magazine staff a huge amount of secret documents about the sex trafficking of young woman into the country,so that they can be used as "slaves".One of the main important revaluations in the documents,is that some of the highest ranking police offices and judges are are involved in the trafficking of the girls.With the report seeming to be very accurate (the two journalist have spent over four years investigating the case) Bloomkvist decides that after he has talked to some of the people that are mentioned in the documents, (so that he may be able to get some information out of them, about people who are higher up the chain of command.) that the next issues of the Millennium Magazine will publish the articles. With having visited her "welfare officer",and having heard that some people are trying to get hold of records,which are about the time that she spent in a mental hospital,Lisbeth threatens the officer,and decides to take his gun.As Bloomkvist gets ready to finalise the publishing of the report,he gets a call from the reporters saying that they have been doing more research,and that they think that they have found something very interesting..When Mikael goes to visit the reporters,to discover what they have uncovered,he instead finds that they have both been brutally murdered. Whilst the police look for the murder weapon,they discover that Salanders "welfare officer" has been shot dead,and that the fingerprints on the gun found at the scene belong to Lisbeth.
Due to the bullets from the gun,matching the bullets that killed the two reporters,the police decide to attempt to charge Lisbeth Salander for a triple murder.After finding out that the police are trying to find her,Lisbeth decides to go "underground" by living in secret buildings that are on the outskirts of the city,whilst her on-again-off-again girlfriend lives in her former residency. One night,when Salanders girlfriend is walking down a street,she gets grabbed and pulled into a van by a man who seems to feel no pain at all.As she gets forced in,a boxer (Paolo) who is a mutual friend of Salander and Mikael sees what is happening and decides to follow the man. After a tough battle,where they almost die,Paolo and Lisbeths girlfriend are at last able to escape.When Paolo tells Bloomkvist about the "Blonde Hulk" that almost killed them,Mikael decides to investigate,to try and find out the identity of the man.Whilst Bloomkvist tries to find out as much as he can about the man,he discoverers that the "Blonde Hulk" may be trying to hide some extremely disturbing details about Salanderes childhood,that involves very senior members of the police and the government
The screenplay: writer Jonas Frykberg makes the structure of the film surprisingly similar to the second Lord Of The Rings films (The Two Towers),with the two plot lines of Salander and Bloomkvist,having both of the characters trying to reach the same conclusion, (in the same way as Towers,where the three main plot lines show the characters trying to reach the same destination in three very different styles)and whilst this does allow Frykberg to give the Lisbeth Salander character some extra depth,by having Mikael look into Salanders past,which allows for some very interesting flash-back scenes to show the troubles that Lisbeth has had to face since she was in her very early teens.
The only problem with the idea,of not having the two main characters meet up at all for (most) of the film,is that the fantastic chemistry that the characters (and the actors) share,which helped to make the first part feel so strong,is sadly completely left out in this film,which sadly makes the movie lose some adrenaline-powered moments,that would have helped to make the films plot move at a more break-neck speed. Thankfully,the performances are still able to reach up to the high standard of the first part.With Noomi Rapace giving another stunning performance as Lisbeth Salander.
For this film, director Daniel Alfredson allows for Noomis feminine beauty to be shown in a good part of the second section of the film,as Rapace shows Salanders desperation to try and remain in hiding,whilst finding out who is setting her up for the murders. For the main sex scene,and the very last scene of the film,Alfredson smartly expands on some of the ideas in the previous part,with Salander being very masculine and dominant during the bed room scene with her girlfriend.And for the last 15 minutes of the film,Rapace and Alfredson astonishingly show Salander turn into a brutal and intelligent force,who even when left to decay and rot,having been completely broken,is still able to get her batted body to rise up to fight back at the people that have tried to destroy her life,ever since her childhood. Although noticeably slower than the unforgettable first part,this is still an extremely enjoyable drama- thriller,that along with some fantastic performances,gives a huge amount of extra depth to the amazing characters.