Click here for the review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

SPOILERS must be tagged with the "SPOILER" tag!

Well, I'll admit to being surprised. I did not think this remake would be JB's four-star movie. Shows how much I know.

I've always been conflicted with these stories. The books were a good read, but, to me, Stieg Larsson was not a good writer. At the least, he needed a better editor. What made the books readable was his creation Lisbeth Salander, a truly fascinating character. Similarly, the Swedish movies were faithful adaptations of the books, neither great nor awful. As in the books, the character of Salander was crucial; Noomi Rapace really nailed that performance, and she made those movies memorable.

I was skeptical about this remake, but I suppose I'll have to check it out.

Or a better translator?

James if I was naive, I'd claim that you gave this movie 4 stars simply to get my blood boiling

My biggest issue really is that I can't see how I could objectively view this movie, as JB has done, considering my like of the original. That, paired with my dislike of Finchers recent movies 'Social Network' and 'Benjamin Button' is going to make it all the more difficult.

What is your issue with "Benjamin Button?" My problem with it is that for all its gimmickry, it is a standard story of star-crossed lovers. I don't think there is an inspired exploration of fate or, more importantly, the conceit of a man who ages backwards.

I heard from James in general discussion part of the forum that they don't change the resolution to the mystery. With that knowledge:

You probably won't be able to be "objective" but there's no reason to be. You still have the original; this one doesn't take anything away from it. It should be interesting on your part to see it and consider the differences.

BTW, I watched the extended version of the Swedish TGWTDT only a couple of days before seeing the new one, so I went in with a very fresh perspective of the Swedish one and still dug what Fincher gave us.

Here's what was changed at the ending. Do not read if you don't want to be spoiled.

James - Great to see your first four-star movie since 'Avatar', and you couldn't have picked a better film for the honor. Most amazing is how Fincher builds on Oplev's work in the original film. Best thing I can say about Fincher's version is it adds to the story... without diminishing it in any way.

Just got back from seeing this. Really intense and awesome. However, can someone tell me...



I loved the very end though. I know the feeling, Lisbeth.

Just returned from this. I would say 2 stars is the appropriate rating. Overlong ain't the issue this time; it's just poor storytelling. I've seen the original Swedish film, which was much better, and I still couldn't tell what was happening. The problem, I think, is that Fincher did not care. With Zodiac, he made a film about events of his own life that impacted him on a personal level. The Tattoo story, by contrast, is hardly worth telling in the first place. I think Fincher sensed that, but after audiences were underwhelmed by his previous two films, decided to give this genre another go. But the result I think, is that Fincher feels depressed about Social Network's lack of huge success, and the fact that he must once again go back to a stage of his career he thought he left behind. This film simply did not feel "dark" to me. The rape scenes were as brutal as the first film, but that's about it. I wasn't bothered by one thing I saw on the screen, apart from the dullness of it all. What I do know is this: Dragon Tattoo will not be popular, and it will not be a hit. As a fan of the original film, I'm very disappointed, so I can only imagine what book fans will think of it (I haven't read it). Watching it, I felt one of my favorite directors suddenly lose all relevance and purpose. But hey, that's just me.

I'm glad this got a good review because I fell that the Hollywood hasn't fully found a place for Daniel Craig yet, and he really is a talented actor.

Disappointing. Basically an overlong episode of Cold Case. Okay, I guess the characters are slightly more interesting although Lisabeth is really the only well developed character in the movie. That said, I found the tv show Cold Case to be more emotionally involving than this. It's so long, needlessly long. The movie doesn't pick up until Mikael and Lisabeth have started to team up. Even then, it's not THAT special. It's your average murder/mystery/whodunit. The identity of the killer isn't really all that surprising. And they use everybody's favorite cliche in an action picture: the talking killer syndrome. Finally, when the movie appears to have reached it's climax, it continues on for another 20 or so minutes. Ugh. A 2 hour and 38 minute movie that shouldn't have been any longer than 2 hours.

I'd give this 2.5 stars out of 4.

If I remember the novel correctly - it’s been a while since I read it -

Nice to know that you have such penetrating insight into Fincher's mindset. You might want to remember that he signed on to direct THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO *before* THE SOCIAL NETWORK opened, and he was deep into pre-production when it premiered at the NYFF. By the time it was determined to be a poor performer at the box office, he has begun filming TGWTDT.

Hey, I don't mind that you dislike the movie, but don't pretend you come to this with any special understanding of the director's mindset, especially when you don't have your timeline straight.



I wouldn't feel comfortable making this statement, although the box office has been difficult to predict lately. The book has a huge following in the United States, most of whom have not seen the Swedish version, so the curiosity level is high. And the movie is as faithful to the book (which I have read) as one could expect from a feature film. Whether all of that will transform into tickets sold remains to be seen.

From the review, this movie sounds on par with Jar Cityin terms of grit and seaminess. I felt completely gutted after that one. Great movie-making, but damn hard to call "entertaining".

That clears up a lot. Thanks.

Likewise, in fact this is one of the main attractions in my eyes, if not the only one.

'Benjamin Button' was just, how else can I put it, a bit lame. Don't get me wrong, I can totally see what the story was going for, I just couldn't get past the central gimmick (and a gimmick is all it really was!). It's not like Fincher hasn't already worked with 'gimmicks' before (Seven and Alien 3 both utilised unusual set ups) but this just took the piss in my eyes.

JB,

How surprised are you that this version turned out to be better than the Swedish one? This may be just a stereotype, but most people will think a "serious" movie lover or critic is going to automatically assume "oh, the foreign one is better by default, American remakes are always so dumbed-down," and those who haven't seen the foreign version are therefore less "sophisticated."

I'm constantly suspecting a knee-jerk "the original is always better" bias in critics when it comes to remakes, both foreign and domestic. It often feels as if they decided the original was better before watching either.

Having recently watched Infernal Affairs, I felt that it was better than The Departed, but reading through the reviews, it does feel to me like some critics just default to the view that the original is better and don't bother to actually compare them. (My short review and comparison can be found here, in you're interested.)

Dayum! You got served!

Oh no he Di'ent!

Okay, my stupid references to terrible teeny bopper movies and there terrible self-referencing parodies are done.