Cinematical Judgments: The Girl Who Played with Fire

So here we are.  My first real movie review.  Honestly, I can’t think of a better movie to start with than “The Girl Who Played with Fire”, the sequel to the Swedish thriller “The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.”
“…Dragon Tattoo” remains to be one of the best movies I have seen in the past 5 years, hell, maybe ever.  I can’t remember the last time a movie moved me as much as that little gem did.  Never have I been shocked to the point of tremors AND moved to joyful tears all in the course of one film.  Needless to say, “…Played with Fire” had gigantic shoes to fill.
Now, I am aware that I cannot truly judge any of these movies until the third and final film is released (yep, it’s a trilogy).   But I can, however, express my immediate thoughts: it wasn’t as good as the first (of course).  But why??  Is it due to my praise and admiration towards the first film? Perhaps.  But I think there’s more to it.  Allow me to elaborate on what I think hindered the film…

• This film had a different director: In fact, each film in the trilogy has a different director. I have no idea why the producers decided to take this route, but I find it to be somewhat of a bad idea. To me, that means that each film will have a different “style”. If you are telling three different stories that involve the same characters, sure, hire three different directors. That would probably work just fine. The Bond films have had numerous directors over the years, and it has worked just fine (for the most part). But if you are telling one long continuous story, keep one lone director on board. That’s just my opinion.
  


• Audio woes: The sound in “…Dragon Tattoo” was THUMPIN’! So it was hard to get used to the somewhat stifled sound of this movie. When you have a brutal fight scene involving one of the main villains (who also happens to be a “blond giant”), it should SOUND like a brutal fight scene. If said blond giant punches something (anything really) it would sound bombastic. Remember how Indiana Jones’ punches sounded? It would be like that, multiplied by 10 at least.
  (Trivia! The sound effects designers created the punch sound by slamming a pile of leather jackets and baseball mits with a baseball bat)
  


• Plotline gaps: This may be a film related pet peeve of mine, and I’ve seen it happen countless times. It’s simple: when a riddle is cracked, explain how! If the audience is left to assume why or how something happened, the movie isn’t doing its job right. In the first movie, when another piece of the puzzle fell into place, one knew where the piece came from, what it meant, and how it fit. In this film, certain problems were solved without real explanation (I won’t get specific, I don’t want to spoil anything).
  


• Straying from the book: I’ll admit it. I’ve yet to read any of the three books that these movies are based upon. Perhaps that makes me unqualified to judge anything involving this movie. But tough shit...it’s MY blog...
  Anyways, I had someone with me who had read the book, and that was a big help (Thanks Tim). There is no need to gloss over details or streamline a story arc, just to cut down on time. When people go to see a foreign art film, they don’t really mind length. In fact, some expect a film in that genre to be on the long side. After all, this isn’t some Americanized "wham-bam-thank-ya-ma’am" type movie.

So that’s what came to mind during/after viewing the film.  Maybe I’m be a tad harsh, but the truth hurts.  The ironic thing is, it’s still a very good movie, and I would suggest it to anyone!  I cannot wait to see the final film.  Hopefully it does a phenomenal job of wrapping up a landmark trilogy.