I decided to go all-out and give myself the full Millennium experience by watching the TV miniseries (9 hours in total) over the space of three nights.
Wow. I loved it. I'm not a huge fan of the crime genre, and I haven't read the books, but MILLENNIUM is a difficult series to fault. It's a mature and mannered piece of film-making, dealing with adult and taboo themes and wrapping the reader up in a realistic and conscious mystery yarn.
Despite the slow pacing, the miniseries is thoroughly engaging. Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace are both excellent leads, bringing to life fully flesh and blood characters who engage the reader's sympathy and emotions throughout. The thriller aspects of the story are exciting and as a whole this is a mature and fully developed piece of work. The original storyline is built upon and expanded in a decent way.
There are slow spots and weaker moments that could have been done better, but overall this is an intelligent, emotionally satisfying mystery yarn. Great direction, great plotting, great acting, great cinematography...what's not to love?
