So, originally I wasn't exactly psyched when I heard about this remake. The original was so good and it transcended culturally in my opinion so I didn't see the need for a remake, but oh well. I then completely fell in love with Matt Reeves' Let Me In (which which is another American remake of an awesome Swedish movie) and that made me raise my expectations for this movie somewhat. The movie has been out in the theaters for about two weeks now and has grossed $32 million, with a budget of $90 million.
I've seen, and loved, the original movie and I've read a couple of chapters of the book it's based from. Yes, I lost interest in the book. I'm sure it's a great book, I'm just not into this whole murder mystery genre and lost my motivation to finish the book. I'm a fan more or less of David Fincher; Panic Room - hell yes!, The Social Network - not so much. I think the thing about Fincher is not really his stylistic approach to his movies, it's that he chooses great stories to tell and tells them well. That's really no different in this movie. At it's core the movie is a murder mystery but it bring in ingenuity with it's two leads, Michael Blomvkist and Lisbeth Salander, with the latter being one of the best written contemporary female characters in my opinion. A gothic androgynous hacker girl who teams together with a fallen from grace political reporter to solve a 40 year old murder? It's just destined to be a great story.
There were several key differences in the plot in this movie from the original, and unfortunately I don't know which was closer to the book. The differences in this movie were slight but they made both Michael and Lisbeth more equal in regards to their relationship. In the original movie, Lisbeth basically figured everything out on her own and helped out because of her interest in Michael. In this movie however, Michael was about equal, in terms of the investigation at least, well and also the relationship between the two. Their relationship is more linear in this movie. Also there is a lot more sex and nudity, but that's what Americans want right? Actually I'm not complaining, Daniel Craig is very easy on the eyes. The gore seemed a little subdued in this movie, which was surprising, but enjoyed by myself as I'm not a big fan of violence, or gore, and even gorey violence. The movie was about as long as the original: two and a half hours! This movie lead more into the second one which will give a nice tie in to the next one. Lisbeth was kind of more of a bad-ass in this movie as well.
The movie was not that stylized, except for the extreme imagery in the title sequence, the long rolling shots, and quick jump cuts. The title sequence was like a music video but pretty cool. I also did really like the long rolling shots like the one going down the tree-lined driveway to the Vanger house and Fincher also did a nice long shot during the horrible rape scene where the action would jump to a backwards rolling shot of the closed door and back. Yes, the score was good. One of the characters even wore a Nine Inch Nails shirt. Wink, wink.
So Daniel Craig did a very nice job in my opinion. He has a great body, but that's beside the point. He wasn't quite as vulnerable as in the original movie, which I suspect is closer to the book. Even though, he still played the character quite well. I guess Bond just can't play vulnerable that well. Rooney Mara did great. She didn't just wear black clothes and piercings, she played the character. Although Noomi Rapace made that character.
So in the end, it was all about the story. The score and cinematography blended together nicely to keep the story feeling genuine and interesting for two and a half hours, even though I knew what was coming. It felt a little bit more focused on the two characters than the original, perhaps because Fincher had the advantage of knowing that two movies would be following this one. I loved loved loved Let Me In because of the stylistic approach Reeves had taken to enhance the first but this Dragon Tattoo doesn't feel as stylized and just a larger budget re-telling of the same story where you don't have to read subtitles. It did feel smoother and had a more consistent pace than the original, which one would expect with $90 million. I enjoyed the movie. It was on the same level as the first. "Put your hand back in my shirt" -- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
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