Girl Who Played with Fire, The: Original Extended Version (Blu-ray) (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	179:15
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Daniel Alfredson
Studio Distributor	Nordisk Film Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Michael Nyqvist Noomi Rapace Lena Endre Peter Andersson Michalis Koutsogiannakis Annika Hallin Sofia Ledarp Jacob Ericksson Reuben Sallmander
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$29.95	Music	Jacob Groth

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Swedish DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, mildly
		Action In or After Credits	No

     After Män som hatar knvinnor hit bestseller lists in Sweden and eventually the world, follow-ups were sought and as inevitable as night following day. For the two follow-ups that were published, Stieg Larsson changed tack slightly, narrowing the focus to his heroine and making the story more personable to her.

     I almost miss the opportunity to rap the "translators" over the knuckles in this instance. Flickan som lekte med elden pretty much means "The Girl Who Played With The Fire", making this the most accurately-translated title not only of the Millenium series overall but of many titles that have been translated for English-speaking audiences during my lifetime. Unfortunately, the translation of content between novel and film gets poorer in this case. This is mainly due to Niels Arden Oplev being replaced by Daniel Alfredson. Whilst Oplev made changes to story points in the original that are awe-inspiringly unfounded (how Harriet is found being the most important), Alfredson is simply not up to the task of compressing the five-hundred-plus larger-size pages of the novel into three hours of running time.

     With her gains from the events of Män som hatar kvinnor, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) lives a little and goes on holiday whilst searching for ways to further improve her relative freedom. Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) tries to find where she has gone, all to no avail. Her guardian, Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson), has gone looking for means to reduce or neutralise the scars from the last time he underestimated Lisbeth. Lisbeth finds out about this, and reminds him that they have an agreement that he will have to honour the terms of, lest she decide that video of him sexually assaulting her is best given to the Swedish authorities rather than simply kept as a taming rod. Unfortunately, this prompts Nils to go to people he believes will be able to neutralise his problem with Lisbeth. The man he speaks with most directly is a giant of a man (even by Swedish standards) called Ronald Niedermann (Micke Spreitz). Niedermann works for a gentleman who is most often referred to in the novel and film as Zala, and has an unhealthy interest in Lisbeth. As this is happening, Millenium is inking a deal with a journalist called Dag Svensson (Hans Christian Thulin) to publish an exposé on the subject of sex trafficking. Dag's girlfriend, Mia Bergman (Jennie Silfverhjelm) is in the midst of writing a PhD thesis on the same subject.

     So when Bjurman, Svensson, and Bergman are all found dead one evening, the subject of who killed them is hotly debated until it is discovered that Bjurman's gun is the murder weapon, and Bjurman was guardian to Lisbeth Salander. This starts a ball rolling of such lies and outright s***-speaking in the press that anyone with similar issues about lies being told about them to me should keep heavy objects away whilst watching this piece. Lisbeth, naturally, goes into hiding, but as Niedermann pursues her and we learn who this Zala character is, well, let me just say that my heightened opinion of Sweden as a society walked away with a number of dents and bruises.

     Like its predecessor, Flickan som lekte med elden is a story that holds a mirror up to the world that inspired it and asks "why?". Unfortunately, this miniseries-style adaptation is even less well-written and directed, placing more of the burden upon Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace. Fortunately, the quality of the latter's performance is of that quality where she does not simply play the character, she is the character for three hours. Unfortunately, the transfer on this disc is almost a character in the film itself, and it ends up being even more bothersome than some of the villains described.

Video

     I could, if I were lazy, simply cut and paste my review of Män som hatar kvinnor, the two transfers are that alike. So I will keep this one short, to the point. If you have read that review, however, you know what is coming.

     The transfer is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio within a 1920 by 1080 progressive window. The transfer is sharp (when the camera is not moving). Not up to contemporary standards, but sharp enough to not be mistaken for a DVD. Shadow detail is good, but not great. Noise is occasionally evident in the picture, but not of the low-level variety. Colours are natural, with no tweaking, bleeding, or misregistration in evidence.

     Compression artefacts were not noted in the transfer. I will categorise the primary artefact in this transfer as film to video, although a detailed explanation from any source as to where it came from would be appreciated. On multiple occasions where the camera movies, frames seem to become a mixture of the present and previous frames, creating a ghosting effect that is headache-inducing to watch. There are also some pans where the effect is quite severe, and I had to stop playback in order to make sure that swimming sensation in my head was not something more serious. The most annoying aspect of this artefact is that even though it is relatively subtle most of the time, it obviously makes the programme difficult to watch. Film artefacts were not noted in this transfer.

     Subtitles are burned into the video stream. Aside from the problem this poses with people who do speak Swedish being unable to turn them off, they are a major improvement over those found on the discs of theatrical editions of these features. Unfortunately, like the previous disc in the series, they cast serious doubt upon themselves. A good example is at 59:29, when Tanja Lorentzon is enunciating what clearly ends in "Jurassic Park", but is rendered "Jesus, your view of women is from Middle Ages" in subtitle. Sometimes I am glad I only have an unusual hearing "impairment", rather than being completely deaf.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     There is one soundtrack in this transfer. The original Swedish dialogue encoded in DTS HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels.

     The dialogue is clear and separated from the other elements. No audio sync problems were noted.

     The music in the film is credited to one Jacob Groth. During dramatic sequences, where the score is let off the hook, it works very well in conjunction with the on-screen action. But it is not exactly the most remarkable work.

     The surround channels are worked very lightly, taking some of the score music or directional sound effects and wrapping them around the listener. They are not worked especially hard, and aside from the use of the centre channel for dialogue, could be left out of the transfer without any real loss. The subwoofer supports the occasional gunshot, punch, or car hitting something. It is worked even less hard, and integrated with the soundtrack about as well, than the surrounds.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    No extras of any kind are present on this disc.

Menu

    The Menu is animated using pans of the same artwork that was used in the opening credits sequences. Again, the number of provided Chapter Stops is woefully inadequate.

     Investigation of versions released in American (Region A) and the UK (like us, Region B) make it pretty clear that it matters little which part of the world one sources the disc from. Any available alternative would be an improvement on this version. Without a direct comparison of all three versions, I cannot say which is the optimal purchase, but it seems to be a case of determining which version can be sourced most reliably with the least expense.

     Flickan som lekte med elden tries very hard to live up to the promise of Män som hatar kvinnor, but the complexity of the plot and the challenge of streamlining it into something that can be presented over the course of a couple of nights soon overwhelms the director. The two primary actors do their best to rise above the tide of this problem, but the manner in which the interest fades when other characters are focused upon is very noticeable. Still, the struggle of Lisbeth Salander is an interesting one, and seeing people try to approach it in the adult fashion that the material demands may be enough for some. The scenes with Noomi Rapace and Per Oscarsson (who plays Lisbeth's previous guardian, Holger Palmgren) make it incredibly clear that the problem is with the direction and writing, not the actors.

     The video transfer is made very difficult to watch by an artefact that should never have made it past quality control. Everyone who wants modern television to live up to what we were promised during "future shock" films of the 1980s should be very angry at Village for this transfer.

     The audio transfer may as well be three-channel. The extras are non-existent. Add all of this up, and we have a disc that deserves to be counted among the worst the format can offer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall