Flaws of US movie-making are exposed

Rating: 3/10 (31 December 2011)

The US remake of "Dragon Tattoo" is inferior to the original in every aspect of film-making: script, acting, directing, cinematography, music, editing--even credits. Fincher puts the story together with the energy and creativity of someone painting by the numbers. Daniel Craig, with his absurdly tight clothing, registers no emotional, intellectual or sensual qualities of the male hero. Rooney Mara has the stare of Salandar, but nothing else.
My wife and I looked at the original right after seeing the Fincher version on screen. Danish director Niels Oplev captured the characters beautifully, and his cast gave their characters distinct and rounded qualities. Fincher's version was also soft on Nazism compared with the original, weakening the political insights and critiques that are the skeleton of Larsson's works. Rapace makes Lisbeth as fascinating as she is in the novels; Mara succeeds in making her only weird and sullen.
The cobbled-together editing and crutch-like flashbacks make one wonder why Fincher decided to disrupt the original's great flow, energy and clarity with such ineffectual modifications, modifications that sap the story of its power. The annoying, modern- mechanistic soundtrack of the U.S. version, like the oily black credits, betray a desire to say "listen to me!" and "look at me" rather than to work organically with the story. I don't see how any serious movie lover could rate this pitiable remake as worth seeing over the original.