Good, But Not The Original or the Book

Rating: 7/10 (24 December 2011)

I must confess that I write this with just a bit of bias. I had already seen the original Swedish film and felt that it was one of the top ten films of the last year or so; therefore, the new version had quite a hill to climb were it to rate better (in my mind) than the earlier version.
If I could forget having seen the earlier version, I would have come away from this film with the comment that it was a well done film but didn't really do justice to the book.
Both Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara did very good jobs in handling their parts as written. However, with a deeper script in this version, they acted with much less nuance than did Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace.
The film began with a very dark, James Bondish, introduction which was really excellent. Throughout the film, the hand of the director, David Fincher, could be seen, working his magic on his vision of the book.
This film varied from the book (as many films do) and from the earlier version - in most cases the changes added to the experience, although there were a couple of times the changes were a bit too far afield. I, personally, found the changed ending spoke more to how Fincher wanted the ending to be than did Stieg Larsson, the author.
So, I guess the final tally is:
1) If you read the book - This film, while not true to the book, is a very well done film that is well directed, well acted and generally well done.
2) If you saw the original - This film doesn't reach the pinnacle that the earlier version did. It's still a good film; just not up to the standards of the original, especially in the acting department.