Fincher, Zallian, Mara, and Craig are invaluable.

Rating: 8/10 (16 November 2018)

The release of the sequel to this movie that just came out is somewhat disappointing to me. I don't mean that the movie itself was disappointing, I didn't even see it. Just the fact that it was released far too late without the essential elements of what made this original great. Having never read the book, I wasn't able to follow the story as well as I would have liked to. My brother explained some things to me as we were watching it, which helped and I could tell that it was probably a difficult book to adapt.
When analyzing a movie, I nearly always focus nearly all of my attention on the story and the writing because that is what compels me in most cases. However this was a rare exception. The story was interesting enough in a plot sense, but I had a hard time getting invested in the mystery side of it. The ending similarly was not totally disappointing, but not entirely satisfying. But what kept me most interested while watching this was David Fincher's awesome style, and the compelling performances of Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. I would gladly have paid for another movie with those same people attached to it, especially if Steve Zallian wrote the screenplay again.
But sadly, that didn't come to pass. Without turning to far away from actually talking about Dragon Tattoo, I want to briefly say why I'm opposed to seeing The Girl in the Spider's Web. Mostly, it seems like the studio is scrambling to get money out of it and I want to say to them, "sorry, but you had your chance to do that and you blew it". I can't say for sure, but I think a direct sequel to Dragon Tattoo would have been more financially successful than the poorly reviewed sequel that just made $7 million in its opening weekend. That number would be exponentially bigger (yes exponentially) if someone had realized how much power Fincher's name has.
To be fair, this wasn't the best Fincher movie, but that is a high standard to live up to. However, it still showcased his ability to work with great actors and great writers to bring characters vibrantly to life. If you prefer the Se7en and Zodiac side of Fincher, you'll probably like this. However, it lacks the same social critique/nihilism of Gone Girl, Fight Club, and The Social Network. If you are not a Fincher fan, I would still recommend this as just an overall quality movie. As I've said, it's not the most compelling story, but this is filmmaking at its pinnacle which makes it worth a watch. Overall Rating: 7.8/10