Luftslottet som sprängdes (Daniel Alfredson, 2009)

At last, the final instalment of the Lisbeth Salander saga: The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Mind you, the heart rather sinks with the realisation that it's still the same director at the helm as for the messy and flat second part, where half the edits necessary to bring running time to a manageable length obfuscated and drained the story of character rather than streamlining Larsson's occasionally turgid prose. And if you've read the third book, you know that it'll be easy to get swamped with its reams of dry exposition of the evidence-gathering and investigations to uncover the institutionalised corruption that built up over the course of the preceding parts.
So it's a relief to find that Alfredson either seems to have learnt his lesson, or anyway had lots of professional help. It's still way too bulky and unevenly paced, of course, but that now seems to be down to the more forgivable sin of wanting to stay faithful to the original novel lest fans object: what's been removed this time is, as a rule, just dead wood. Noomi Rapace really makes the film this time too, as the punky bisexual hacker who refuses to lie down and play victim: she scarcely utters a word until the finale, a defiant wall of silence with an occasional twitch on her face communicating volumes, until when she eventually, tremulously, steps out from behind that barrier and her revenge becomes gratifying indeed.

6/10