The Girl With the Dragon tatoo Daniel Craig Style

[Cullhaven]

Saw this about a week ago and it was a vast improvement over the Swedish fiasco. Its still not perfect, bits left out and a huge bit of plot changed, but what was left out here made a lot more sense than what was left out in the Swedish version.
Daniel Craig is a revelation. never rated him as an actor, made some god awful films and a couple of decent ones. Didn't think he could play Blomqvist but was pleasantly surprised at just how good he was. Plummer as great as always as Henrik and "Bootstrap Bill" was his usual excellent self as Martin Vanger.

Rooney Mara. Wow. What a performance. The first time she shows up, getting off a bike I screamed "NOOOO" - she had a mohican and Salander only does her hair like this in book 3 when she is in court, I think Larsson had her do it as a plot device to show that she was going to war. But from then on she played the role with that brooding, sullen intensity that Salander has in the books and I found her mesmerising - she stole every scene she was in, even with Craig performing at his very best.

Not a perfect film, by any means but a week on and I am dying to watch it again. There is a lot of Quality here, from the title sequence to the film makers using a lot of the actual streets of Soder Malm that are mentioned in the book. I think the Millenium Offices are actually those of Expo - Larssons own magazine, which Millenium was partly based on. Full marks from me, keep it up in film 2 and 3 please.

 

[Janie]

Might not get the sequels.

"MGM reports that it has made a modest loss on David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and seek better terms for potential sequels...
Published on Mar 25, 2012

Despite taking in excess of $200 million at the global box office on a budget of around $90 million, David Fincher�s adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo still appears to have performed, financially below expectations, and at this point has made MGM a modest loss, coupled with this has been the somewhat lukewarm critical reviews.

Of course it has yet to hit DVD and Blu-ray (as well as umpteen other ways it'll rake back cash), so it'll certainly end up in profit. But the financial reporting system means that, on paper at the moment, the film has red ink by its name.

And this might not bode well for the planned films of the next two books in the series, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest.

MGM say that they still want to go ahead with the sequels �assuming we can achieve better economics�, and that sounds like a push towards the exit door for director David Fincher. He's reportedly down to receive a $5m fee for his services, and the studio and director apparently clashed frequently during the making of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo."

 

[Cullhaven]

Aww thats a shame. If the other two do get made I hope they take the "path" the books take - from bogstandard detective story in book one, to revenge novel in book 2 and full-blown political thriller in book 3. The Swedish versions wers so disjointed and wayward none of that came through and they just lurched from one confused mass to another. Gutted if we dont get them.

 

[Sheleph]

I really, really liked the Swedish versions. Not knocking Daniel Craig's portrayal since, as you've said, he was excellent at portraying a capable but mortal/vulnerable man (who runs away when people shoot at him!) that's very different from other characters (like Bond).

I liked the cinematography of the Swedish version, it had an unpolished and un-American look (a bit like Borgen) that's slightly off beat and engaging/interesting through that. Pacing was off beat, but again it made for an unhurried detective story (rather than just an action film).

I'm with you that this version was great, I'd love tgo see them do sequels . . . but the Swedish version made me happy too

 

[Janie]

I thought the accents were all over the place on the American version some actors seemed to be trying a Swedish tint (to various degrees of success) and Daniel Craig simply didn't even bother trying. The pacing was alittle uneven as well, I think they may have done a slightly better job at disguising the 'Whodunnit' aspect - it's hard to judge as I've seen both versions after reading the book - but I always thought the Swedish film seemed to point the villian out really obvisously.