The rare remake that is just as good as the original.

Rating: 9/10 (31 March 2012)

Director David Fincher is an excellent director. Not quite one of my favorites but a great one. He's a director who typically sticks to thrillers, and has surely made some of the best thrillers of all time. Alien 3 aside, he made the richly brilliant Seven, the mysterious puzzle of a movie The Game(my personal favorite), the darkly funny Fight Club, and the clever thriller Seven, which focused on the characters more than the crime itself, which more of the films above have done. These films make him perfect to re-adapt The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the remake of the Swedish film of the same title, based off of the late Steig Larsson's incredibly popular book series.
The film revolves around Mikael Blomkvyst (the perfectly chosen Daniel Craig), a shamed journalist recently committed of libel. Despite this, a man(played by Christopher Plummer) asks him to solve the mystery of a family member who went missing 40 years ago. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander(played by Rooney Mara, almost too well), a badass computer hacker, is researching Blomkvist, and the two eventually team up to solve this mystery.
Mara and Craig are perfect. Perfectly casted, and they are just perfect. The film is similar to the 2009 original, despite a few minor things. It's a little less extreme, to be perfectly honest. But at least it didn't avoid the territory that Sweden brought to them. It goes there. The rape, the lesbianism, the whole sha-bang.
Mara's Salander is just as tough and badass, but she's not as sexy. No offense to Mara, who is brilliant here. But Noomi Rapace's Lisbeth is sexier. Rapace, who is starting to make a name for herself over here, was hot as Salander. In real life: Not as much but still pretty, and same goes for Mara. Craig is the best choice, honestly. And so is Mara, aside from Rapace.
TGWTDT is just as good as the original, but how couldn't it be. They're very similar. Both dark, brooding, and complex, and incredibly entertaining. Also, Oscar Winner's Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' dark tune flows well. I also like the camera shading. I like how the film looks the way it does. TGWTDT is definitely worth seeing, one of 2011's best.
A-