The Better ADAPTATION, and Just an Excellent Movie All-Round

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2012)

This was the best film of last year. No exceptions. There were a few small problems, but they are outweighed by the massiveness of the brilliant stuff.
The Bad:
The changes to the end from the book (namely how it works out with Harriet) feel almost as though they were trying to save a trip to Australia, and not trying to make the story better for the screen.
The Fantastic:
Firstly, the best thing is that was all that was wrong with it. How often do you see a book adaptation where a massive fan of the book has one issue? Second, Rooney Mara is brilliant as Lisbeth, even better than the annoyingly Hype Noomi Rapace, who did do an excellent job in the role, but has been out done by her English language counterpart. Third, Fincher's cinematography. Cinematography is the equivalent of readability for a film. Fincher managed to make his film as eye searing and addictive to watch as the book was to read. Fourth, no lame skimping on the nasty bits. All of the nasty bits in this film were not at all scaled down from the book (and definitely scaled up from the Swedish version). People walked out the theatre in droves. Fifth, the opening titles are brilliant and totally unexpected, but still show images and concepts from the book in a brilliant ingenious was that really ties this film to it's two inevitable sequels. Sixth, the soundtrack and editing. Awesome from Zeppelin to the eighties song with the name I cannot remember. The fantastic images and the brilliant soundtrack blended to completely mess you up.