So what did everyone think of the US version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? How did it stand up to the Swedish version? Here's my review.
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Thread starter The Mud Doctor
- Start date
I preferred Craig to Nyqvist, and Rapace to Mara - if you could somehow combine the two I think it would make a better film. The US version was a solid film, and it's likely that if I hadn't seen the first one I would have been entirely satisfied with it - but I felt the subtle character changes they made to Lisbeth made her less interesting in the new version.
Nah. It's almost a shot for shot remake with some inconsequential detail changes.
Opening credits are the best part of the film. Ha!
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Mud Doctor, I agree with your review.
rayw, you're joking about it being a shot-for-shot remake, right? I assume you're joking, but just checking to be sure (though, I do agree -- the opening titles are awesome).
This isn't a remake of a foreign film; it's adapted from the same source-material. I like this new version, much better. I loved the performances of both our leads. I think the story moves forward at the pace it needs to. I also think, as Mud Doctor put it, it's "more complete".
Case in point --
Speaking of which -- how is this movie not NC17?
rayw, you're joking about it being a shot-for-shot remake, right? I assume you're joking, but just checking to be sure (though, I do agree -- the opening titles are awesome).
This isn't a remake of a foreign film; it's adapted from the same source-material. I like this new version, much better. I loved the performances of both our leads. I think the story moves forward at the pace it needs to. I also think, as Mud Doctor put it, it's "more complete".
Case in point --
the rape scene, and subsequent torture/revenge/blackmail. In the Swedish original, I just didn't see how it fit. It had absolutely nothing to do with the murder-mystery, only detracted from the story, and felt gratuitous. In the American version, it's all about her character. These scenes (all of which are brutal to watch) get us into her mind, teaching us something about her motivation. She's been dealing with this kind of stuff for almost her entire life, and it's the sole reason for why she helps solve the murders. It makes her investigation personal, not academic.
Speaking of which -- how is this movie not NC17?
Did they speed it up? Yes. Did they take out any story? No, they added. It's 2-and-a-half hours long, and moves forward at a fairly brisk pace. I think you'd enjoy it.
I thought the rape scene was just a character introduction subplot. Kind of like how in Serpico for example, Serpico had to deal with little crimes in the beginning, before the main plot took place. I took it that way. Or perhaps Stieg Larson wrote the subplot with the sequel already in mind.
Nope. Not joking.
Vanger receives dried flower, pouts.
Blumquist found libel.
Vanger's attorney has security firm research Blumquist.
Salander is asked for personal opinion not in her report.
Vanger's attorney asks Blomquist on Christmas eve to research his missing niece.
There's the long commute.
The isolated out building.
(They added the cat. Big whup).
Meet & greet the Vanger famdamily.
Research the photo.
Find the other person with a camera.
Stroke, new fiduciary guardian w/ inappropriate questions.
Salander's computer is broken in a different way. (Another big whup).
Rape went pretty much the same.
Blumquist found libel.
Vanger's attorney has security firm research Blumquist.
Salander is asked for personal opinion not in her report.
Vanger's attorney asks Blomquist on Christmas eve to research his missing niece.
There's the long commute.
The isolated out building.
(They added the cat. Big whup).
Meet & greet the Vanger famdamily.
Research the photo.
Find the other person with a camera.
Stroke, new fiduciary guardian w/ inappropriate questions.
Salander's computer is broken in a different way. (Another big whup).
Rape went pretty much the same.
Same material. Variant execution.
I'm not impressed.
Granted, subtleties are lost on me.
Coke. Pepsi. I don't care.
I like BK fries more than McD's, but it's no big whup.
Heinz or Hunts? Who cares. It's ketchup, for crying out loud.
Whether Salander stuffs a
big chrome or plastic dildo up Bjurman's bunghole
Dude earned more than that in my book.
He's d@mn lucky if he dies a short death in my book.
To prove the point, what we need is a challenge sometime this summer where we're all given a simple four or five page story and we each film it - kinda like Nate North's "TOOF" Cop & Driver project.
We'll see how several of us produce the same source screenplay, and we'll see how much of a material difference comes of the products.
Five buck's says, inconsequential differences aside, not much.
BEOWULF -and- BEOWULF and GRENDEL
THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR 1968 -and- 1999
CLASH OF THE TITANS 1981 -and- 2010
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN -and- LET ME IN
DANCES WITH WOLVES -and- AVATAR
One of these was a weenie shot4shot remake.
The others... not so much.
Oh, and a little T&A isn't NC-17.
You need a lot more frank & beans action and some lingering exposed organs to rate that.
Preferably in the same scene.
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Yeah, you lost me when you said that Coke and Pepsi are the same. Malarky!
These are not subtleties. The differences between the Swedish and American versions are huge, in my opinion. Same narrative, yes. WAY different excecution. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
As for it possibly deserving NC-17, there's a whole lot more than T&A going on there. It's difficult to watch, drawn-out and disturbing as shit, and I think it deserves to be differentiated from an R-rating.
I might have to go check it out. I just really like the original chick.
The new one just seems marilyn-mansonish to me?? I know it isn't fair cause I haven't seen the movie but hey... I said I don't care.Yeah, you lost me when you said that Coke and Pepsi are the same. Malarky!
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
As for it possibly deserving NC-17, there's a whole lot more than T&A going on there. It's difficult to watch, drawn-out and disturbing as shit, and I think it deserves to be differentiated from an R-rating.
I did not say they were the same.
Different but whoopteedoo difference.
Deal.
During the difficult to watch part there's no
erect Bjurman penis actively engaged in obvious anal penetration before spraying semen up Salander's backside, onto the camera lens, then dripping down her face as he pulls out a machette and starts hacking her skull like a coconut, brains and blood flying through the air, bits of both also landing on the camera lens and mixing with the semen.
Some
skinny @ss + pot belly + suggestive grinding & groaning/screaming
Same here.I might have to go check it out. I just really like the original chick.
Noomie Rapace has a pretty face.
Just tell her to keep to please her shirt on.
Yeesh!
Rooney ain't flippin' my wig.
Whatever.
(You could/should wait for the DVD! Ha!)
What I'm most interested in is how the opening credits were done.
It looks like it was shot in color, converted to B&W, then back to color.
Plus a whole lotta CGI work.
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To me the subtle differences are what makes Lisbeth much more interesting in the swedish version, and also more believable. In the american film she asks permission - in the swedish one she just acts. And the final scene in the american version makes me wonder how they'll do the sequels (assuming they do) because it changes the nature of their relationship significantly -
There is one subtle detail I liked in the american version though.
if she blows him off it makes sense for him to be sort of pining away for her for the next couple of films (which seems to be the drive behind his actions throughout both), but if he had her and was the one doing the blowing off then it basically wipes out his motivation to work so hard for her later. In the first films she is truly independent and he spends all three trying to convince her to let him get close - in the american film she seems to fall for him right away, which seems unrealistic for a character with her background.
There is one subtle detail I liked in the american version though.
At the end when she saves Blomkvist and clubs the bad guy with the golf club, you can hear one of his teeth rattle across the floor. In the following scene she's got a tooth hanging on her necklace - it's almost unnoticeable, and it's gone in subsequent scenes, so it's really easy to miss. I like when a filmmaker takes the time to work in details like that even knowing that most of the audience won't catch it.
Some of the things you guys are discussing MUST have been in the original, but to CrackerFunk's first spoiler:
The reason it seems gratuitous is because it didn't and doesn't make sense until the second book.
My mistake was to read book one and two before seeing the movie. Big mistake. I felt that there were big, gaping, miss the point kind of omissions. I just can't tell if it was the film or the fact that I read the book first (that's what I think it was)
We'll see, two more movies to go. I have to see the originals, I hear they're excellent!
-- spinner
The reason it seems gratuitous is because it didn't and doesn't make sense until the second book.
My mistake was to read book one and two before seeing the movie. Big mistake. I felt that there were big, gaping, miss the point kind of omissions. I just can't tell if it was the film or the fact that I read the book first (that's what I think it was)
We'll see, two more movies to go. I have to see the originals, I hear they're excellent!
-- spinner
We'll see, two more movies to go. I have to see the originals, I hear they're excellent!
-- spinner
They are on Netflix Instant watch. IMO the two sequals aren't as good as the first, but are worth the watch.
I did not read the books or watch the original that way when I see the new movie I can judge it on its own merits. I want to see this movie. I am a fan of Fincher. I loved Fight Club and am willing to give this movie a try. I think I will go see MI4 and Sherlok Holmes first though.