DO NOT see if read the book or seen the original!

Rating: 2/10 (20 December 2011)

An open letter to Hollywood - STOP turning popularly artistic foreign movies into your big budgeted box office cash cows! Why? Simply because you have the tendency to flip, add, delete, re-arrange, water down, etc the original material to fit the average American movie-going audience's intelligence and attention span. Case in point, Let The Right One In - a beautiful Swedish movie but horribly re-made into an Americanized version with 30 minutes lopped off.
Now you have sunk your greedy hands into another Swedish film - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Thank the blessed goodness that Stieg Larsson isn't alive to see how you have flipped and watered down his work ...adding WAY too much and leaving out too little than its Swedish version. PLUS you have revealed TOO before its time.
*sighs* If you have seen the Swedish original and/or read Larsson's books, SouthSide seriously advises that you stop reading this review now ...or suffer the agony knowing what they have done. If you're currently reading the Millennium book trilogy - stop now. It's not going to help you while viewing the movie. HOWEVER, you haven't read and/or seen the Swedish original - this movie was tailored for you because you wouldn't have a clue as to what was added or subtracted.
Sadly this version is missing the mystique behind the disappearance of Harriet Vanger but focuses more on Lisbeth Salander (played by Rooney Mara, an okay replacement to Noomi Rapace) and Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig a stale replacement to Michael Nyqvist). The way TGWTDT was filmed you would have thought the writers were studying the cliff note version of Stanley Kubrick's guide to flipping a novel into a movie without the use of a script. The screenplay (by Steven Zaillian) jumps around like a hot Mexican jumping bean snagging bits and pieces from the book thus smashing them together during the beginning that the plot doesn't become fully clear and concise until slowing down at the middle. Even the rape scenes between Bjurman and Salander did not frighten or make this reviewer squeamish (or even arouse her kinky fetish side). They totally missed their mark. There was no subtle seduction from Bjurman over the "vulnerable" Lisbeth ...it played out like some poorly made American porn. And then that's when the many movie mistakes kick in ...like isn't that dragon tattoo suppose to be down her back NOT alongside her left side ...or isn't she suppose to tattoo "I'm a SADISTIC rapist pig" on her guardian Bjurman's chest instead of "I'm a rapist pig"? There are many more but this reviewer shall not reveal them here. Then there's the TWO major mistakes made in which totally changed the outcome of the entire movie far differing from the original Swedish version and Larsson's book.
And a word to the dialect coach - please teach your actors (Daniel Craig included) to stick to one accent, please. This reviewer had a hard time distinguishing if Blomkvist was Swedish, British or American or all three at the same time with everyone changing their accents throughout the movie. It felt like watching The Prince of Persia all over again.
Trent Reznor, SouthSide believes Nine Inch Nails want their front man back ...asap! You do not have the gift for composing movie music ...you should have taken some lessons from Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman ...or even Chris Carter. Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song?!?! Seriously, dude, what does that classic epic rock song have to do with the movie especially the opening credits (that looked like someone did as a Graphic Design project for Flashpoint Academy ...and it wasn't even good). The music throughout the movie didn't enhance or heighten the action or plot ...sometimes it was too loud and boisterous or the scene didn't call for music. OR sometimes there was no music to be had when it called for it.
*sighs* It is this reviewer's honest recommendation - wait for the DVD/Blu-Ray version. At least you can press stop and then play when you get to a confusing scene that doesn't make any sense.