The Girl Who Played with Fire: Part 2 (2009)

The Girl Who Played with Fire: Part 2, directed by Daniel Alfredson, (2009), 3.5 stars

The Dragon Tattoo Trilogy: Extended Edition, now available on DVD and Blu-Ray (and currently via Netflix streaming as well) contains significantly longer, televised versions of the Swedish films, which are themselves based on Stieg Larsson extremely popular Millennium series of books. The films were also quite popular, but they necessarily omitted quite a bit of background that, I believe, would have clarified things quite a bit for viewers who had not read the novels prior to seeing them on the big screen.  When released theatrically, “The Girl Who Played with Fire” ran 129 minutes.  In TV form, each book is divided into two 90 or so minute segments.  With a total runtime of approximately three hours, the TV version of this book contains nearly an hour of additional footage.  Although more slowly paced than the film, the extended edition it is much richer in character development, and it also allows for plenty of time for additional, intricate plot elements to unfold.

Having seen the theatrical release once just under two years ago, I don’t remember it well enough to say how it is different in any specific way from the extended release.  If you’re interested, others have already weighed in at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1216487/faq#.2.1.1 and http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=363928 and probably many more places as well.  What I can say is that unlike “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” which I enjoyed quite a bit, I didn’t like the sequel very much upon first viewing.  I was disappointed, perhaps, as much by the plot as by the film.  My reaction may be partly due to the fact that I hadn't read the book prior to seeing the movie, but that can't be the whole reason.  After all, I liked the first film and I hadn't read that book before seeing the film. 

Watching "Fire" this time was very different; I thoroughly enjoyed it at its new length.  Perhaps, my revised opinion was due to the addition of new material.  Perhaps, too, it was impacted by my having just finished the book, which I liked. Regardless, I knew what was coming, and that allowed me to notice differences between the book and its screen adaptation.  None of them really bothered me.  For instance (and I hope this doesn’t give anything away), unlike in the book the film version of arch-criminal Alexander Zalachenko gets around reasonably well.  Also, Lisbeth’s guardian, Holger Palmgren, is far further along on the road to recovery in the film than in the novel.  These are quibbles.  And there’s actually, in my opinion at least, one change for the better in the film: the decision to short circuit the encounter between journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the ever-so-scary villain, Ronald Niedermann.

For those who enjoyed the Swedish films during their theatrical run, I wholeheartedly recommend seeing them once more in their extended form.  For those who thought the originals were already too long, stay away from these versions.  And, just for the record, despite being a big fan of all of David Fincher’s films (including “Alien 3”), I enjoyed both the long and short Swedish versions of “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” much better than his American remake.  I’m glad his film turned a profit and received the critical acclaim it did, but only because I hope that will get more people to see the original Swedish series.