The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The US remake of "Dragon Tattoo" is inferior to the original in every aspect of film-making: script, acting, directing, cinematography, music, editing--even credits. Fincher puts the story together with the energy and creativity of someone painting by the numbers. Daniel Craig, with his absurdly tight clothing, registers no emotional, intellectual or sensual qualities of the male hero. Rooney Mara has the stare of Salandar, but nothing else. My wife and I looked at the original right after seeing the Fincher version on screen. Danish director Niels Oplev captured the characters beautifully, and his cast gave their characters distinct and rounded qualities. Fincher's version was also soft on Nazism compared with the original, weakening the political insights and critiques that are the skeleton of Larsson's works. Rapace makes Lisbeth as fascinating as she is in the novels; Mara succeeds in making her only weird and sullen. The cobbled-together editing and crutch-like flashbacks make one wonder why Fincher decided to disrupt the original's great flow, energy and clarity with such ineffectual modifications, modifications that sap the story of its power. The annoying, modern- mechanistic soundtrack of the U.S. version, like the oily black credits, betray a desire to say "listen to me!" and "look at me" rather than to work organically with the story. I don't see how any serious movie lover could rate this pitiable remake as worth seeing over the original.

The girl with the dragon tattoo is perhaps Finchers weakest effort with a cut and paste rendition of the Swedish original that couldn't hold my interest either. Although beautifully shot in the lavish Finsheresque style, the story of a talented young investigator who teams up with a journalist to unravel a 40 year old mystery belongs in an episode of Inspector Morse rather than in a 3 hour long attempt to warp time. From the completely out of place opening sequence up, I was thoroughly annoyed that the film couldn't grab and hold my attention for even more than 3 consecutive scenes. It in stead annoyed the hell out of me with the incompatible soundtrack compiled from the left-overs of Trent Reznor's previous soundtrack for The Social Network. Perhaps even more annoying are the two completely unconnected stories that take forever to intertwine and didn't spark an iota of interest in the outcome of the story or the fate of the protagonists. There is Zero character development, a totally forgettable scenario combined with a a far too linear, thin and familiar plot culminating in an inescapable conclusion which all the same didn't make any sense unless the killer wanted to be caught. Watching this, I had trouble resisting the urge to do the laundry. 3/10

I have read all three of Stieg Larsson's books and seen the Swedish movies. The Swedish version of The girl with the dragon tattoo(Män som hatar kvinnor) was very good but I feel it is somewhat overrated. Nothing particularly weak about it but still not as good as some claim. When word came about that David Fincher would direct the new one I was just overjoyed. My maybe favourite director working right now filming one of the best books I had read in years. With thrillers like Se7en and Zodiac to his credit he was the perfect choice. And he doesn't disappoint. The big question for many have been will Rooney Mara live up to Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander? The answer is She does! Who is better is difficult to say because they actually play the character quite different. Noomi is older and seems more secure and determined character while Mara feels more fragile and emotional. I feel Mara is more like how Lisbeth is described in the book. I like this movie better but regarding Lisbeth Salander it's a draw. Daniel Craig is great as Blomkvist, and it's good that even if he is a big star(James Bond) he plays the role really down to earth, the person the character should be. It is and should be Salander who is the main one and he lets Mara be the star. One actor who really surpasses his predecessor is Stellan Skarsgård. Considering his character has such a big role this is a big plus for the American version. Christopher Plummer should also be mentioned. As I'm now on the actors I should also mention the relation between Salander and Blomkvist. Craig and Mara are brilliant at creating chemistry. Not only does one focus on the mystery but at the end maybe even more about them. Do they really speak with a Swedish accent? Some of them yes and I admit it felt a bit strange a first but one gets used to it like with most other things so some time later in the movie I didn't mind anymore. Steven Zaillian deserves praise for the script. The original movie, even though it was not much shorter the plot at times felt rushed. Especially the ending where it went so quick and simplified. Zaillian succeeds in fitting the story without making it to fast or simple. Even if one hasn't read the book you can follow what is going on. Very impressive and perhaps what lifted this movie above the Swedish. So there are some changes but for me, unlike how some feel about adaptations, the book isn't something holy and changes don't have to be wrong. Stieg Larsson's novel was not without flaws and the changes they made make sense, necessary and some better. Fincher is a master of suspense and shows it again here. The atmosphere and tone of the settings fit the story perfect. The movie is brutal just like the book and also that is handled great. Neither reduced or overdone. The music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is as expected amazing. Almost as great as for The Social Network. I loved the opening credits set to the tones of the Immigrant Song cover. Some may feel it's a bit out of place but personally I loved it. So are there any weak points in it? Well the last parts of the movie the story slows down somewhat but thats because Stieg Larsson's novel was like that and those parts are also needed for the continuing of the series. And even if I really like the Millennium trilogy, the story is not perfect not as complicated as some might expect. Doesn't mess with your head like Se7en. If I'm to rank David Fincher's detective thrillers The girl with the dragon tattoo is below Se7en and Zodiac but it doesn't mean it is a weak movie, definitely not! I don't think I can find much they could have done better. The Swedish movie was good but this is much better. It lives up to my expectations as a fan of the book. Also works great as a thriller on it's own.

I will start out writing that I never read the books or watched the original movie. I'm writing this based just on the film that was presented and nothing else. That being stated, this film was a tedious, convoluted mess of nonsense, graphic rape-torture, and mostly stereotyped uninspired casting. I am not going to give a detailed synopsis, you can get that elsewhere. All I will say is the plot has something to do with an industrialist who hires Daniel Craig to find out who killed his niece. The graphic rape-torture scenes make you feel like you are watching a snuff film. The casting of the rapist was almost laughable. A fat, creepy looking Yorick van Wageningen plays the rapist. The reality is rapists look like everyone else. I'm surprised he did not have an eye patch and a scar on his face. Another point, what predator (Wageningen) would pick a would be victim who he knows has a history of unpredictability, violence, and works for a security company! Totally unrealistic. I really do not understand the people who love this film. I think their positive reviews say more about them then it does the movie....

First of all let me call Lizbeth the Wild Wonder Woman. She is certainly wild with the hair, clothes and stainless steel and she is a bit of a wonder with her ability to take over any computer on the planet. Also all the computers that she takes over belong to people who keep their whole lives on their laptops including their banking records, their life's history,the codes to their accounts in the Cayman Islands etc.It's all there waiting for WWW. Also she has a wonderful relationship with various police forces, all she has to do is walk in and ask for what she wants and she gets it. Certainly a WWW. Christopher Plummer's offspring disappeared 40 years ago and he has decided that she is dead and not only that but murdered by a member of the family and he has devoted the 40 years to unmasking the killer without result. So he calls in Daniel to solve the mystery. The problem with this is that there is no reasonable cause or rationale for making this assumption. So you have to see it as a plot facilitator and a poor one. Daniel's investigation proceeds with Lizbeth's help and seems to consist mainly of looking at old photos. No divulging of the ending but there is the identification of a couple of serial killers which makes as much sense as Curly did in the Three Stooges. All together way too long and a waste of your time.

Watching Fincher's remake was so much like deja vu that I wondered if the director had simply employed CGI artists to superimpose American and English faces over Swedish ones. I also wondered how Hollywood gets away with this level of grotesque artistic plagiarism. Niels Arden Oplov must surely be outraged because this is more his film than Fincher's. This is a remake with absolutely no creative effort put in-except for those appallingly unnecessary and unconvincing faux-Swedish accents. Why even bother? All I can think is Fincher was under contract to make his film identical to Oplov's, but using English language.