I can hear you now condemning my comments from earlier reviews explaining that you should leave movies with subtitles alone. Then I go and put one that has been remade into English in my top 50. Well, I cannot justify it well enough compared to others and I think it was because of this movie helped me reach my conclusion as this is a very good copy of the other movie. This is the English speaking version of ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ and with this being so good it made me realise that the others were just so bad, and it also highlights that if you don’t hide the fact that you are looking to copy something else then just go and do it but do it well. Don’t say hey that was fantastic and so good that we are going to copy it but change it then you are reducing the quality of the original. Will try not to dwell on this point too much more and just get on with the usuals. This was released in 2011 two years after the original Swedish version this was directed by David Fincher with Steven Zaillian as the screenplay writer based on the same Stieg Larsson book. This version has suspiciously similar scores to the Swedish version of story this version scored 7.8 out of 10 IMDb (which is exactly the same) meanwhile Rotten scored this one 86% and the Swedish version 1 point less. Apparently, this was pushed together in a hurry on a budget of $90m but it did go on to make $232.6m at the box office which makes the lack of sequels for this movie more confusing. I should get to the plot, now shouldn’t I?
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist has been disgraced in a legal case which has a fall out of a libel suit brought against him by businessman Hans-Erik Wennertröm. Mickael has a lot of luck with the ladies but is divorced but having a long-term relationship with his business partner Erika. She is married and her husband is aware of the arrangement but doesn’t really talk about it. Together they have a magazine called Millennium which this libel and court case will have a knock-on effect to the magazine. It could ruin it so Blomkvist decides to give up his name on the business and go into hiding to let the dust settle and leave the magazine to build itself up again. Meanwhile a young investigator called Lisbeth Salander has been hired to investigate Blomkvist, she is a hacker and uses it to dig up dirt on lots of nasty people out there. She uses her skills to dig up the dirt on Mikael but surprisingly for her she doesn’t really find any. She reports this back and the secret hirer of her services makes their decision. Mikael is contacted by a mystery source and asked to investigate a murder case that was never solved. Meanwhile Lisbeth’s legal guardian a state-appointed role after her difficult upbringing suffers a stroke and is replaced by Nils Bjurman. A sadist who wants to control her entire life and forces her into sexual favours to get her money or if she doesn’t, he will ensure she is institutionalised. Mikael is asked to go and live in a cabin and investigate the death of the grand niece of Henrik Vanger a wealthy successful retired businessman. Mikael stumbles on the report of his investigation and traces it back to the hacker who has decided to sort out the situation with Bjurman with the use of a taser, tattoo equipment, a camera, a dildo, a gun, some ties, and a set of demands that Nils Bjurman couldn’t refuse. Mikael confronts Lisbeth and is impress with her work so wants to hire her to help him with his investigation. Hence the two come together to investigate the missing assumed murdered girl whose case is forty years old.
What confuses me about this movie is why it was made, as the Swedish version went on to complete the trilogy but this one that reaped more from the box-office stopped after the first one. Leaving without really knowing it too many loose ends. It just stops there. The English-speaking version then made the fourth part of the story which was extended upon. This just stopped here. Anyway, this is a good enough interpretation of the book that you could watch this one and then the next two movies from Sweden to follow the story. It is a great story which when the movie follows it closely makes the movie a success as well. The story is close to the mark and it’s a much harsher and raw version from the Swede’s where this is the fluffier and more American (they do like the fluffy don’t they). This is a great story, and it has a fluffy enough ending that it should be great and may be a reason why they didn’t make the second movie as this was not the happiest of endings for the Americans. For this movie it is a good one and it’s in my top 50 for a reason it’s a good movie and great attempt of the book and deserves to be respected. If you haven’t seen it? It’s worth a try but it’s a long movie and you have to keep on top of it to follow what’s going on (just to give you the heads up).’
Next up is a sci-fi movie which for me is a classic and has scenes that have been copied and stolen by yours truly to be used elsewhere. It’s a sci-fi classic!
Comments