The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

This movie is apocryphal. Don't watch it. Even if you've never read the books, or seen the Swedish adaptation, this movie is awful. The pacing is terrible, the characters are lackluster and the relationships between the characters are not at all believable. If, on the other hand, you have read the books, seriously, don't watch this crap. I watched it just to see if it was actually any good, because it for some reason has good reviews, and now I wish I could take back the 2 & 1/2 hours of my life and my $2.99. The reasons it sucks: number 1, this version of Lisbeth completely betrayed the characters from the books. When she goes to advokat Bjurman the third time, she says "do I have to give you a blowjob every time I need money?" When in the book she says, "I'm not going to give you a blowjob every time I need money" that small word change means a lot, this scene and many others try to make Lisbeth into a victim, like she needs our pity and sympathy, which the books clearly point out she does not. Also, in the books and Swedish films, Blomkvist is a likeable guy. In this film he is not, it feels less like daniel craig playing Mikael Blomkvist, and more like daniel craig playing himself. He's far too serious and if you didn't watch the first five minutes our the last five, you would completely forget that he was a journalist. And many other characters were changed for no real reason. Number 2, the chemistry between salander and blomkvist is nonexistent. They spend literally like 5 minutes working on the case together before they split up to do other stuff, then she comes back to hedeby, mikael is shot at, and runs back, takes a shower and then they bang. Like what? They've seriously only have known each other for like 10 minutes, And it makes no sense at all. The relationship between blomkvist and berger is hardly touched on, the relationship between mikael and Henrik is nonexistent, Lisbeth's mom isn't even mentioned. Honestly, just don't bother. I knew going into it that it wouldn't be just like the book, they only have so much run time, but the Swedish film seems to put a lot more into it than this version does in the same amount of time. Plus, Noomi is hotter.

If you cannot take subtitles of the original this is close enough. It's just a bit quick compared to the original but all the points are hit. I haven't read the books, but the original movie is pretty awesome. This one is almost awesome. Watch both to be fully satisfied. Get the full trilogy. It's a must see series.

Do yourself a favour & watch the Swedish original. If you watch this mess from Hollywood what you'll see is a virtual copy of the original - every shot even to POVs are stolen from it- only difference is that the Swedish 1 had great actors & this 1 does not! Craig is so clueless that in the middle of winter in the north of Sweden he doesn't even bring a single pair of gloves! Lisbeth is a total caricature of a punk due to director's poor taste & vision. Complete waste of film. Nuff Said