A disgraced financial journalist, and a young antisocial computer hacker join forces to solve the 40 year old mystery of a teenage girl's disappearance. As they do so, they get drawn into serious crime and corruption, deadly family secrets, and a string of unsolved murders of young women spanning fifty years, which puts their own lives at unbelievable risk. Will they solve the mystery before they become history?

When I saw the original movie series about two years ago, I was awestruck by mostly the awesome acting of Noomi rapace, and the movie's visual style, and it's inherent raunchiness, which is more common in stylish European thrillers than slick Hollywood movies. When I heard there would be an English version, I thought this would be a hard act to follow, and without Noomi Rapace as the female lead would not be the same, because she was so much an integral element of the original movies success.

In the meantime I listened to the audiobook version featuring Simon Vance, which I also found quite enjoyable. He does all the voices including Lisbeth with a slight Swedish accent that veers toward cockney. The story is much more detailed with many elements glossed over or left out of the original movie.

So, when I heard it was about to be released, and saw the trailer, and understood the pedigree behind this movie with David Fincher directing, and Daniel Craig as Blomquist, I made a point of going to the evening show before its official opening today.

Inevitably, one cannot help but compare with the previous experience. Definitely, the fact that this is in English is the greatest justification for the remake, so for many people who are distracted by subtitles this will automatically be a better experience.

Steven Zaillian, the screenwriter, previously won an Oscar for writing Schindlers List. From a storytelling point of view, it stays close to the original story, with much more detail, in that respect exceeding the original. In other respects too it exceeds the original. I particularly liked for example the soundtrack with its darker gothic metal tones by Trent Reznor, and the opening sequence with somewhat James Bond style imagery although darker, and I loved the storytelling.

This movie completes the full arc of the story, whereas I felt unclear in the original about the full circle story against Wennerstrom. This movie introduces the cat, and Cecilia Vanger as a character. We get to meet some of the characters we don't meet in the original.

David Fincher goes to great lengths not to have it be a remake, having each scene be somewhat different, so in only one scene did I have slight deja vu, which I appreciated. This movie is also raunchier, you'll know what I mean when you see it and focuses more on the relationship between Blomquist and Salander. It also has occasional humor. The scene where Michael is hunted shocked me in my seat, and there are several shocking scenes in the movie, including the crime against Lisabeth by her guardian. This is a harrowing scene as is the basement scene, although I felt that particular one was more harrowing in the original. In another movie, Zodiac, Fincher delivers one of the most suspenseful basement scenes ever when an investigative journalist is in the house of the suspected Zodiac killer.

Perhaps the single best thing about this version is that it captures the intention of the original author. Apparently, when Stieg Larson was a teenager he witnessed a gang rape of a teenage girl, and did not intervene to stop it. He was always troubled by this, second guessing his behavior, and worked as an independent investigative journalist, and this was partly his motivation for writing the Millenium Trilogy series which has now reportedly sold over 60 million copies, and the great visual art of 4 movies.

In fact, he gave the character Lisbeth the same first name as the original victim, so when Blomquist proposes to Lisbeth that she help him find a killer of women, one senses that Larson would be very pleased about this.

I liked also seeing Robin Wright as Blomquists partner, and while I still give the original movie the cool points for style and the visuals, I think many people will without my preconceptions warm to Rooney Mara who does give a great performance, in her unique way as this antisocial yet extremely resourceful and intelligent computer hacker.

I recommend it whether or not you have seen the original series. I also recommend you do check out the original series. If they do complete the rest of the trilogy, there will be opportunities in those movies to vastly outshine the originals, certainly if they include more detail from the books as they do here.

I think you will love it, and I hope this review was helpful. Read more ›

....is not this one!

After reading the books and watching the Swedish trilogy on dvd I suppose I was expecting too much.

If I could I would mush this version together with the Swedish version and create my own perfect version. I would keep Daniel Craig as Mikael (wasn't sure about Michael Nyqvist - he didn't seem like a good choice after reading the book). I would definitely keep Swedish Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth, she was beautiful/ugly/vulnerable/hard all at the same time - just as I pictured her when reading the book. Loved her and loved the flashbacks to her as a little girl setting fire to her father!

I preferred this film's telling of the relationship between Mikael and his Millenium co-owner but I much preferred the Swedish telling of Lisbeth's rape and revenge - more gritty and much harder to watch :-) The Swedish Bjurman is one nasty sick individual - this one was rather pathetic.

The Swedish version seemed to stick more to the story I remember from the book (although it is a while since I read it!!) and I much preferred the Swedish ending.

And finally, what's with the irritating background "music" in this version - was it meant to make the scenes appear chilling? At one point near the beginning I ended up getting up to look out of the window, thinking it was a house alarm going off on my street. It drove me mad.

Making this in the English language with an international star playing one of the leads put me off for a while. The Swedish films were all superb; nearly as good as Stieg Larsson's books so a 'foreign' attempt at making the story properly Swedish seemed risky,
That said, it was pretty convincing and the acting was just right. Well directed too and the lighting, set design, costumes all first class.
A film is always made in the edit suite though, and seemingly this could have been at least 4 hours long to build and convey ALL the characters and their backgrounds and complexities before one of the book's most important sections (Australia) creates the climax. Changing the script to omit Australia and set all the characters up in a form of cinematic shorthand spoiled things just a tad, but the Swedish production wasn't 4 hours long either; even if their budget DID stretch to Aus.
Maybe watch this first, then the Swedish production - then read the book. It is a magnificent work of fiction and the English version is great but not perfect.

I always thought an English redo of TGWTDT (or the Men Who Hate Woman as the original Swedish novel is clumsily titled) was utterly pointless. From watching the end result you'll be mystified as to where the $90 million budget went (the 2009 version cost $13 million). Thankfully the movie itself offers a bigger mystery to distract you from that, but globally the 2009 was far more successful and made more money. It seems that $90 million was spent simply to appeal to Americans who couldn't be bothered reading subtitles.

The story is mostly the same to Niels Arden Oplev's interpretation, with a few relatively minor deviations and contractions. Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig, not even bothering to attempt a Swedish accent) is disgraced journalist who is hired by Henrik Vanger, a wealthy old businessman, to solve the 40-year-old disappearance of his favorite niece Harriet. He takes the job to keep busy while his name and reputation turns to mud.

Mikael throws himself head-first into the case but soon requires an assistant and so he recruits Lisbeth Salander, a misanthropic genius who did the background check on him. Together they uncover decades of dark family secrets and the wrath of a still active killer.

Like Niels Arden Oplev before him, David Fincher almost gets the balance between visual and verbal storytelling right, but loses his grasp on the multiple characters and references to dates, places, and people. Some of the dialogue that should orientate the viewer regarding such things is too quiet, quick, and mumbled. Inattentive viewers will not find this film easy to follow. It does however have far superior photography to the 2009 version, which I thought looked flat and plain and was shot nasty Super-35. Fincher's incarnation is shot in lovely 5K Redcode RAW and is far superior when it comes to atmosphere and mood.

Not exactly a film to watch with your grandparents (curiously, the screening I went to was filled with OAPs) but a solid mystery for grown-ups who want something deeper than the average episode of CSI.

The Blu-ray looks great, but not perfect, in 2.40:1 1080p with DTS HD-MA 5.1 sound and a second disc filled with extras. Read more ›