Caution Contains Spoilers

Rape, and a Forty-year Old Murder Case

Now, before I begin this review let me clear some air here. First off this is not the remake of the Swedish film version, this is the US version of how the book is interpreted to the US. Secondly, I have not seen the Swedish version, and thirdly yes I have read the book. Now, that that's all straighten out time for the review.

The movie's opening starts out as a messed up Gothic/Geeky James Bond opening. People are covered in black ink, and being strangled with deadly cell phone cables. Birds come out of peoples eyes, and a big black dragon appears from no where towards the end of the sequence. And of course the music helps the weirdness with the "immigrant song" playing in the background the entire time. This was certainly a freaky, and haunting opening, but it was to awesome to ignore. It was a very creative opening, and was a visual assault of awesomeness on my eyes. After the confusing opening the movie starts off with, the rest of the tale is told in a calm, patient, and very disturbing manner.

The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo is basically about investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who gets accused of making false accusations about a corrupt businessman. The trial that Mikael has to go through could threaten his career all together. In this harsh time of his life Blomkvist gets an offer from a wealthy industrialist (Christopher Plummer) to investigate a forty-year old murder that has haunted him since the day it happened. In return to finding the killer Mikael will be given all the info about the corrupt businessman he's working on that will ultimately save his career. Mikael accepts the offer, and eventually enlists the help of Lisbeth Salandra (Rooney Mara), or more popularly known as "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", together the two go through a case that leads to some harsh, and disturbing findings.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is directed by one of my personal favorite directors David Fincher. You may recognize some of his movies like Se7en, Zodiac, and The Social Network. I've watched all three movies by the way, so I really like his style. Visually this movie is absolutely amazing. There is no point in this movie where it slacks off at all. It's brilliantly paced, and definitely keeps the R rating. I say that because this is a very graphic movie. In the book Salandra gets raped twice, and the movie shows that happen in all of it's disturbingly graphic detail. It's one those kinds of scenes you want to wash your eyes out from. The book was bad enough, but the movie made it worse. I mean it is necessary to show them though, since after all it was in the book. The violence in this movie like the rape scenes are very intense, and powerful, and really put you in the action of the movie. This movie was so well done that when it ended, I was disappointed I had to leave the theater. The movie goes a little over two and half hours, so it's long, but so well paced as I said earlier, that you never find yourself lost, or bored during the movie.

The acting in the movie is very well done, Mara stole the show with her performance as Salandra. It was also neat to see Daniel Craig out of his comfort zone of testosterone induced action movies. Instead of playing the buff, non-wimpy action hero, he plays as a more average guy just trying to deal with the decisions he's made as a investigative reporter. Craig performed very well, and in my opinion this is one of the best movies I've ever seen him in. The most memorable scenes that I loved in this movie were when Salandra, and Blomkvist really get into the investigation process. It's a quiet scene in which neither characters talk, but the focus on the photographs, and trying to figure out things with the characters is so awesome that voice work is not needed.

I loved the book, and I love the movie. In fact, this is probably one of the best book to movie adaptations I've ever watched. So, if you find yourself in the peculiar situation that you can't find the time to read the book, then have no fear the movie is very accurate. I mean of course it's not completely accurate to the tee, and it does have some plot wholes never FULLY answered, but all in all it's an excellently performed, directed, and filmed movie. If you're a fan of the books I recommend you watch this movie.

I give The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo a 4.5/5. Oh, and I don't recommend this film for young kids due to how graphic it is in both nudity, and violence.

the swedish one was pretty good actually, the chick was ugly, but it was good

IMHO it's one of the best (ie most faithful) book to movie adaptations I've ever seen (and I'm astounded it hasn't got an Oscar nomination in adapted screenplay). Sure there are a few bits missing here and there (and a couple of characters have a lot less focus time), but it flows great and the plot holes aren't glaring.

I also haven't seen the Swedish version (it's currently sitting in my to watch list of blurays).

I can't wait to see this movie!! too bad I'll have to wait until it comes out on DVD =(

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who liked this movie

Honestly I don't understand the hate the film seems to be getting. People saying it's not as good s the Swedish version, that the ending is too different to the Swede one (well it's the ending that's in the book, so what the duck is up with the Swede one then?!) etc etc.

I think they're just making crap up when the only real gripe is that it's a Hollywood remake of a foreign film (and I can sympathise with that).

And I hope that the poor box office doesn't put off making the others (What did they really expect releasing it at Xmas time? It's not exactly family friendly lol. And weather doesn't really help at that time of year either: Tron Legacy utterly bombed at the cinema in the UK cos of all the snow we had that crippled the country.)

Jar the movie isn't a remake of the Swedish version. It's a full on different movie showing the US's interpretation of the book. The reason why I'm saying this and pointing it out is not to offend you or anything like that, but I've personally heard and read comments from people trolling about the movie being crap because it's a remake, when it's not in it's entirety.

That movie was awesome