On par with the original. And that's quite impressive.

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2014)

It is so rare that a remake matches the quality of the original, but this film does just that. In terms of quality, the two movies are in a perfect tie, I really can't decide which is better. I'll start with Lisbeth. Noomi Rapace's Lisbeth is tough as nails and very mysterious to the audience and especially to the other characters. Rooney Mara's version of Lisbeth is quite different. She's vulnerable and she quickly becomes easy to sympathize with. She's also more understandable. There's a part in this film relatively early on when Mike smirks at her antics, as if she and him are good friends even though they only met yesterday. Lisbeth's relationship with the audience is much the same in this movie. In both movies there's a part where she disguises herself as a well- dressed business woman. In the Swedish version, she looks out of place; like she's wearing a costume, but in this version she looks comfortable. Like the piercings, leather jackets, and crazy hairstyles she wears are the disguise instead of the classy suit. In the Swedish version, Lisbeth's personality closely matches her exterior appearance, but in this one, at the core, she is a little less complex, but more relatable. If I had to choose who's performance I prefer I would have to say Noomi Rapace's because she seems more complex and a bit more mysterious, but Rooney Mara did an outstanding job and made it her own as well. I also preferred the pace at which the mystery unravels in the Swedish version to this one. The audience is kept in the dark much longer in that version and it makes the twists much more potent. However, if there's one thing the American version did better (much better), it's the cinematography. The film embraces its neo-noir vibes and delivers many stylized shots that are infinitely more visually interesting than its Swedish counterpart's shots. There's one in particular where the camera moves in to right behind Lisbeth's head and then flips around her to show her face encased in a glowing red light that I really loved. It looked great and it captured the tone of the scene quite well, something the Swedish version didn't try to do very often. David Fincher is a master at creating unsanitary, immoral labyrinths with his camera-work (Fight Club, Se7en), and that's on full display here as well. Like I said, the films tie. They both show different sides to the story and Lisbeth and I recommend both very highly. "