Good in parts, Not Great as a Whole, Worse than the Swedish version

Rating: 5/10 (27 March 2012)

This is my first review, as it is my first complete going over of the three items related to this story; The book, the Swedish film and the American film, and in that order of consumption. The book was absolutely a blast to read. Highly recommended to read the book, skip either of the movies, unless you are curious to put the face to the characters like me. Great intrigue, details, character development, etc.
The Swedish film was dry, perhaps the subtitles? The actors did not portray the characters as well as the American actors. For the American version, I felt as if it was incomplete altogether. The film left out/skipped a lot of details, although it was not important for the over all story, I felt the parts skipped was important for background and character development. If you did not read the book, one would find it strange why Lisbeth can warm up to Mikael so quickly. There were many parts like this that would confuse a person who did not read the book, and leaving little room for a movie viewer to feel any emotions towards the character. Mikael and Lisbeth were my favorite characters in the book, but I did not get the same reactions from either movie. They were just empty vessels carrying the story along.
Perhaps there were too many details and it would make the movie too long...unfortunately I do not see a directors cut in the release, so its clear to say for movie goers, this is pretty much it. As for the actors, the most impressive of them all was Rooney Mara. She portrayed Lisbeth much closer to the book character than the Swedish film's actor, Noomi Rapace. Rooney was pale, skinny, dark, sad. Daniel Craig and Michael Nyqvist(Swedish) was just plain old boring, with Nyqvist a bit more emotions displayed, where as Craig's acting was the same old 007 look throughout the entire movie. The other two American actors that made great contributions to this version was Christopher Plummer, splendid as always in his role, and Stellen Skarsgard, whom always fit the villain part deliciously.
Each important part of the movie was well done in both movies. The information necessary for the viewer to understand how the resolution of the mystery came about was filmed well. However, the ending of the American version did NOT follow the book, for which I was a bit disappointed. Steven Zaillian, screenwriter for this movie felt: " "I wasn't trying to do something different or trying to fix something," says Zaillian. "I just thought it was a good idea. when I read the book, I thought, 'Why are we going so far afield for this mystery to be resolved? Might it be a little more interesting if it's solved a little closer to home?' That's all there was to it. I kind of felt it was right for the character."
(from: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/12/25/dragon-tattoo-movie- changing-ending/)
With this particular ending...I am not sure how or if they will continue with the filming of the next two books. Personally I thought it was rather important how the booked ended it. The Swedish version's ending kept with the book. Thanks for reading, hope this helps.