The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
10/10
Author: sun_bagg from India
10 March 2012

I stumbled upon the "Millennium series" in 2010, while I was browsing through internet. The cover of the book looked interesting enough for me to place an order for it. By the time book had arrived I had gained some information about the author and his rather unfortunate demise. It seemed quite mystifying to me that author died shortly after handing his manuscripts to the publisher.

Any ways, as I started reading it; I knew that I will like it for sure. As it happens with most readers, I too had a mental picture of how Lisbeth would look in real life. For me she was a real character,a real person, whom I dreamt of meeting one day and telling her how awe some she is. As u may have guessed, by the time I finished reading the first book I had ordered the next two instalments already.

Then I heard about a movie series based on the trilogy. The problem was where I could find them. Finally I caught 20 minutes of the "The girl who played with fire" Swedish version on HBO.Was the movie good enough?Did Noomi Rapace justify the character of Lisbeth Salander. From what I could make out of 20 minutes of movie,the answer was "yes". Of course I had imagined Lisebth Salander a bit differently but she was close enough. I had also expected Mikael Blomkvist to be a bit more charming.

Then came the news of English version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" directed by David Fincher,starring Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as LisbethSalander about whom I had never heard before. I was Excited and why wouldn't I be. After all Daniel fitted into my image of Mikael Perfectly but I had my doubts about Rooney.

Finally the day came when movie released but to my utter disappointment its release in India was delayed. Date of its release was set as 10 Feb 2012.So I was looking forward to that day and reviews about the movie only added to my anxiousness. But fate wasn't on my side. Movie was cancelled in India due to some images in movie which" Indian censor board" found disturbing.

What can I say other than, I hated them for it and I even wrote them an e-mail expressing my utter disappointment. Somehow I got my hands on its Blu-Ray version from someplace. Finally came the judgement day. To tell you honestly, how did 2 and a half hours went by, I Don't remember. It was like reading the book again but even better. Lisebth was exactly what I had imagined her to be.

Everything was just "PERFECT". The acting, screenplay, direction, music,everything was top notch. I have nothing but only good things to say about the movie. It was an experience worth having. Rooney Mara played Lisbeth Salander perfectly and Daniel Craig left no stone unturned. It felt good to finally see my mental image of Lisbeth take shape flawlessly.

I have rated the movie a 10/10 in IMDb, because it accomplished its purpose and much more. I felt so deeply moved after watching the movie, that I sat down and Wrote this review. I am really looking forward to next instalment in the series. Finally I would like to end my review with these lines from the movie...

Dragan : "She is different"

Dirch:"In what way?"

Dragan:"In every way!"

For those who didn't read the book or see the Swedish version
10/10
Author: naultr6 from United States
6 January 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

OK it may be sacrilege but what ever, sue me! I have never read the book(s) or watched the Swedish version of this movie. My review is from the point of view of, "I wonder what movies are playing, ooh that one looked decent in previews, lets check it out." OK now that that's out of the way.

The opening of the movie is in my opinion, just plain awesome! Good music and an interesting visual sequence of dark fluid forming/reforming into/over human form. I enjoyed it and it really got me interested into the movie before it had started. The movie opens up basically telling us that the main character just lost a case as a journalist for writing bad things about some big time hot shot and it cost him his entirelife savings. That's it in a nutshell, so he's pretty much down and out. He eventually gets a job opportunity from a rich old guy that wants to find his niece whom went missing like 40yrs ago.

We then get introduced to Lisbeth who is straight up rough cut and looks like the type of chick you stay away from.I'm a motorcycle guy so she scored huge points with the motor cycle and her helmet was awesome!(though I don't see how she could have a perfect mo-hawk after taking off a helmet..). We find out at this point that she's a VERY good investigator type that watches people and gets information.

Lisbeth to me is amazing. She shows this rough outer edge and you can tell she's always "scheming" in her head, always in control, always 2 steps ahead. Even during the most cruel scene in the movie, she still had the guy, even though it didn't seem that way at the time. you'll read other reviews where people say she was too soft, I don't know where they get that from. Lisbeth DESTROYS a guy that tries to take her purse, Lisbeth is the one that dominates our main character through the entire movie, she calls the shots, directs him and even saves him.

The man who violates her, nearly urinates himself every time he saw her after that, not a strong woman?? My Butt!!I really enjoyed this movie,it was nice for once to have a different plot and a entirely different flow to a movie. I have to say the ending surprised me but the more I thought of it, the more it made sense, it's reality and that's all. I felt bad, but it definitely made me want to see a sequel. Go see this, it's an awesome movie! Unless you're like a die hard original person and you only like the Swedish version.