Here's what should have happened...

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2010)

This review is intended for those who have seen this movie already.
In summary the movie was well considered, and the convergence of the characters was done without any noticeable problem. As the story revealed itself, it produced some powerful scenes and thrilling moments.
The movie touched on just enough uncomfortable activities such as rape, violence, racism and corporate malpractice to make the movie engaging.
However, I believe as the viewer of this film, it would have been MUCH more powerful if we saw a change in Lisbeth's character. At the end of the movie, its uncomfortable for me to see her being entertained by the same things the entertained the people she investigated.
Lisbeth's character should have evolved. What lessons have we learned from the film? Did she not learn anything from Mikael? What should have happened in my eyes is that after she let the murderer burn and have Mikael give his thoughts on the matter, there should have been another opportunity for Lisbeth to make a mends as a person.
This would have substantiated her theory of "everyone has the same chance and make their choices in life". It would have been nice to see her face the same situation between saving someone bad or letting them burn, and to see her make that decision to not be the "punisher" in life.
To have a final scene of her walking away with money as a result of a corporation profiting from third-world drug cartels was a big disappointment and didn't do her powerful role justice. She did not learn anything, and it leaves us sitting there in discomfort as we being dealt the ridiculous lesson of "If someone does you bad, then you should do the same or worse back".
I actually think it would have been nice also to have been given more detail as to why she burnt her own father. We know why, but there was so much detail in her subsequent actions in life that we can't compare it to much about how bad she was treated.
The scene with the mother could have been more powerful, and would have been a great opportunity to flash back to the horrors of abusive husband. The balance wasn't there, we know more about HER horrific behavior than that of her father. It was too imbalanced.
If this movie ends up having sequels, then a better ending would have been Lisbeth handing over her medical file instead of the corporate file and have Mikael learn about her OR still have her give her investigation of the corporate file but end with the start of Mikael typing on his laptop. We don't need to be dragged into another story and then they rush through scenes of another investigation.
It so unfortunate that everything else was so good, but the movie failed so horribly in it's ability to teach us anything good. But, it was definitely an entertaining 2 1/2 hours but its sad I can walk away with hope for myself and others.