Falls short of hopes, but not expectations

Rating: 6/10 (3 March 2012)

I will confess that I have not read the book. I tried to listen to it on a cross country trip with my daughter of 25, but some scenes were a bit sexually graphic and we jointly agreed to bag it. That said, I have seen both the Swedish version and American remake. Give me the voice over Swedish version, please.
Is it just me or do others look at Daniel Craig and see him sitting naked on a bottomless chair asking a man with a rope and ball to scratch an itch down there. I'm sorry, but this was one of the worst casting jobs of a starring role I have ever seen. Craig is simply not believable in the role of a magazine publisher. Next is Lisbeth Salander played by Rooney Mara. Though Mara does a fine job as Lisbeth, there is so little depth to the character that I didn't care about her or what happened to her at all; OK I didn't care about Blomkvist either. The Swedish version provides clips of her past to partially explain why she is as she is. I came to care for what happened to that Lisbeth. Mikael's character is also much more defined in the Swedish version.
The two plots follow along pretty much the same path, but this version seems to be so utterly devoid of character development it feels like Martin's kitchen, sanitary and devoid of any decoration. Even Christopher Plummer falls short, and he never does that. Without the character development I felt like I was watching a movie instead of experiencing it. There is no emotional attachment as there is in the original.
I rated it a six only by refusing a comparison with the original. In comparison, I'd give it a 1. Watch the original and avoid this substandard remake.