Well-crafted mystery, but Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander is the best reason to see this

Rating: Null/10 (28 March 2012)

I am generally NOT a fan of re-makes, especially one so close in time to the original (2011 vs 2009). But this is such a rich, interesting story that they pull it off quite well. The story remains set and filmed (mostly) in Sweden, each character uses his or her version of a Swedish accent. But it is a more elaborate production and takes the whole story up a notch.
In my comments on the 2009 movie I wrote, "All the characters are good, but I can't say enough about Rapace as Lisbeth. She creates a character as memorable as any. More closely akin to Nikita than anything else." Now I must echo that for Rooney Mara. Who would have thought, from her role in 'The Social Network'? She deserved the Oscar nomination and it would not been wrong if she had won.
Daniel Craig is the investigative reporter, Mikael Blomkvist. Christopher Plummer is Henrik Vanger, who hires him to re-look at the disappearance 40 years earlier of his niece. And Stellan Skarsgård is Martin Vanger. In an interesting casting Robin Wright is Erika Berger .
The story follows the same arc but some of the story elements are presented differently, often in more detail. The scenes with Lisbeth and her dastardly guardian are more graphic. In the original Blomkvist has to spend 3 months in jail after his conviction, here it appears he only has to pay a large fine. And there is another key difference I will mention below after "spoilers."
Overall an excellent movie, and since I saw the 2009 version about 10 months ago, this one was very fresh to me. I hope they make the second and third ones too, but that seems to be in doubt right now.
SPOILERS: As in the original Nazi Martin Vanger was the perpetrator of many unsolved killings, and he was responsible for the niece's disappearance, she fled because she was afraid. In the original she was found in Australia. In this version she was found practicing law in London under a different name. After Martin's death in a fiery car crash she was able to reconcile with her family.