"The Girl Who Played With Fire" - a sort-of review

Yes, it's going to be another blog filled with Millenium Trilogy nerdiness. Deal with it.
So a few nights ago my friend and I rented The Girl Who Played With Fire and I'll talk about that after I've rambled about the books for a while.
Although I really like the Millenium Trilogy, admitedly I've only actually read the first and second books. Here's why.
One of the things Stieg Larsson does which sometimes annoys me is goes into way too much detail about small things. The reason my favourite bookis "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" isn't only because the first of anything almost always is (Harry Potter, Jumanji ect) but because it keeps the rambling detail to a minimum. I understand it's a complex plot and this is sometimes completley necessary, and when I started reading TGWTDT I was warned it didn't get going until page 75, to be precise. It's mostly true: the first few chapters is just explanations of things, but it's worth it because the rest of the novel sticks to the plot, uninterrupted, and it's exciting and draws you right in - I read most of the book on a beach in Turkey, and I could feel my back burning but I didn't want to leave it for a second.
In terms of plot, though, I think I probably prefer "The Girl Who Played With Fire"
SPOILER ALERT
and the investigation into Dag and Mia's murders earlier on, followed by Lisbeth and Mikael, and the way they end up communicating. Where the first book was mostly a straight up murder mystery, the sequel being about sex trafficking and also Lisbeth's past makes it much more personal to our heroine and the ways she's motivated, and I like that about it.
/K SPOILER GONE NOW.
The only thing I didn't like about the sequel was how every so often, a new character in the police force would be introduced. The next four or five pages would be spent explaining who they were, where they were brought up, their family, their involvement in Soviet Russia and this got on my nerves after a while.
I tried to rest "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" and the reason I stopped was because it seemed like it was nearly all this explanation. It's tiring, I felt like it was studying I had to do before it could offer me a story. I'm not giving up and I'll try it again soon.

The film, my friend told me, is actually made up of bits of a Swedish TV show adaptation stuck together. I "reviewed" The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo here before and I'm fairly sure I talked about my views on the casting but there's no reason not to again. (Lisbeth is excellent and I don't feel like there's much more to say about her).
But the biggest disappointment is Mikael Blomkvist. He looks wrong, he acts wrong, and all of the quirks have been taken from him. My problem with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was that compared to the book, the sense of humour from both him and Lisbeth was completley drowned out, and this took away their chemistry, and almost made us believe they'd just had sex a few times, and there was nothing else bringing them together.
I feel the same about him and Erika Berger only worse, and Erika may be my favourite character. She was cast wrong - she seemed much more scruffy and unglamorous than I imagined her, and the chemistry between her and Mikael was completley missing. I'm not fully blaming the actors, because the version I watched was dubbed and therefore it was probably the voiceovers, but there was a scene where Erika and Mikael were talking and it was juist like bored schoolchildren reading out work in English class. They're lifeless and it makes me sad.
Having said that some of the other characters, particularly Miriam Wu, Paolo and Niedermann, and even Dag and Mia were pretty much perfect - Mia was the only one of the above who didn't look at all like I imagined, but it doesn't matter, she was great, even though a small character.
Was the red-haired journalist in the Millenium offices Lotta Karim?
Reading the book there were a few things I somehow missed, because, guiltily, I think I skim-read some of the later parts. My friend was shocked that I missed completley the fact that Niedermann has a genetic disorder meaning he doesn't feel pain, and also when it turned out he was LISBETH'S BROTHER?! :o
But in summary, I liked it quite a lot: although I think it missed some, The Girl Who Played With Fire really helped tell me the story and fill me in on the things I'd missed, maybe sometimes due to Stieg Larsson's writing style. I'm also really looking forward/confused about the Hollywood remake of the films, and hoping Daniel Craig will make a much better Blomkvist.