I saw it at a sneak preview Monday, but it is out today for the masses.
I had read the books, my husband hadn’t, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.
Long, but not draggy, it is faithful enough to the books that I only had a couple “wait a minute” moments. But overall, I think the screenwriter did a great job encapsulating all the crucial ideas with a minimum of padding. The one bit I did miss from the book was the behind-the-scenes magazine politics, but I work in journalism so that appealed to me. I don’t think its omission hurt the movie in any way.
Just wanted to hear some other thoughts on it, so please chime in if you’ve had the chance to see it!
I’ve heard conflicting things about it, but have not seen it and may not get around to it. Some thought it a powerful and energetic movie, and others though it was so over-the-top that it became absurd (basically, every character is either utterly evil or the hero-can-do-no-wrong type, and the plot meanders).
I thought the original version was a rare case of the filmed version being better than the book. If subtitles don’t put you off, I’d recommend seeing that instead. I notice the new one has a decent score on metacritic, the only negative review is from someone who didn’t like the swedish version or the book either.
I saw it last night and really enjoyed it! (Well, maybe “enjoy” is the wrong word, what with all the rape and brutality and everything.) But I thought it was a great movie. I’m a fan of the books and I’ve seen all three Swedish films. They were good, but I think Fincher’s version is better.
I was curious for those who had not read the books/seen the films first, was it at all confusing? There were several times where I felt like I only knew what was going on because I was already familiar with the story, and I was wondering if someone new to it would have had some trouble? I love that they stayed true to the story and set the film in the original locations instead of transporting it to some random American town, but at times the accents made some lines hard to understand.
Was anyone else completely captivated by that opening credit sequence? That was awesome! David Fincher’s films always have the coolest opening credits.
While I wasn’t a fan of Trent Reznor’s music for “The Social Network,” I think the music worked pretty well in this case, giving the entire film a dark sense of unease, foreboding and suspense. Not a soundtrack I would listen to on it’s own, but very well suited to the film.
Oh, did anyone else notice Joel Kinnaman (from the TV show “The Killing”) as Christer Malm in the background in the office scenes even though I don’t think he spoke one line? Perhaps Fincher was already planning for the sequels?
I saw the Dutch film and don’t see any compelling reason to watch the new version. I enjoyed the first movie, but it’s a very plot driven mystery and I already know the plot and the mystery.
My wife read all 3 books and I will probably get dragged to the movie. I like finchers work other than Ben button. Anyone else disturbed that this type of violent, particularly violence towards women is mainstream entertainment. I could see this being a niche film/book but for the book to be considered a beach read, for the movie to be Xmas release is troubling. I don’t get it. It seems like it will be very disturbing imagery and storyline. Why do so many people want to see it. I suppose I’m just a prude, but I just don’t really see the appeal.
The violence and the rape is horrific, but it’s good because these things really happen in life, but in the movie, she gets her own back. It’s a wish-fulfillment scenario - not to be raped but to utterly destroy and humiliate a rapist. Plus the big reveal at the end is sweet and unexpected (well, I guessed early on, but I still wouldn’t expect such a dark book to end so nicely).
It is disturbing, but unfortunately so is real life, only in real life the rapists and murderers are still walking around free. :mad:
The main appeal is that it’s a good mystery story.
I did find the rape scene upsetting to watch, but at least there was a payoff, as Lisbeth was able to take control of her life again.
I wouldn’t put the story in the torture porn category, the book and film take a strong stance against violence towards women. It’s more explicit than many, but it deals with the issues more carefully than several others I can think of, which make light of them.
As for why release in December, the answer is: to put it into awards contention for 2011. Voters for various cinema awards will be voting soon, so it releases it at a point where it is still in 2011 and ends up being one of the freshest movies in the minds of the voters.
I saw it last night as well and I really enjoyed the movie. It stayed fairly faithful to the book and everyone did a great job playing their roles.
I have to say the opening title sequence was visually stunning. If I recall correctly Trent Reznor did the title sequence for “Se7en” (anothe Fincher movie), so I’m willing to bet he did this one as well.
Humerous side note, when the movie theater went dark they started showing “family” previews (Tin-Tin, We Bought a Zoo, etc.) when they were over there was a 5 minute animated short of Sylvester and Tweety. When that was over Happy Feet 2 started! Everyone in the audience was just sitting there thinking WTF?
It took them 10 minutes to get that straightened out!
I saw the original film trilogy and thought they were excellent. Based on that I got the books, and thoroughly enjoyed them as well.
Based on what I saw in the 2 trailers, I won’t bother with these until someone makes me, as I thought what I saw in the trailers indicated that key parts of the character’s personalities had been altered enough to change their relationships and motivations. I thought the original films were nearly flawless, perhaps even, as Alka said, better than the books. Any alteration to the characters, thus, is to me a flaw.
The one review I saw said that the cast does a competent job, with the only one real standout being the actress who plays Lisbet. Otherwise it appears it’s just a clone of the Swedish version. Any comments about this from Dopers?
The main appeal is that it’s a good mystery story.
It’s a decent mystery interspersed with rather a lot of irrelevant crap that does nothing to advance the story or deepen the character. The entire rape story line could have been dropped and only improved the movie.
Yes, he did the music for both, kind of - the Se7en opening was just a remix of Closer that had already been released. This one, the song was recorded specifically for the movie.
I wasn’t originally planning on seeing this (the Swedish movies were decent but not amazing), but when I found out David Fincher was directing, I was in. I’m planning to see it this week.
Permit me to disagree. In fact, the rape is central to the other 2 books (movies) in the series, and since the over-arching issue being explored here is violence against women, it’s not only apropos, it’s necessary.
Anyone who’s read the books and/or seen the Swedish films and loves the character of Lisbeth Salander should knock everyone out of their way and RACE to the theater to see Rooney Mara’s take on this fascinating character. If you have a loyalty to Noomi Rapace and refuse to see it, it’s just because you like Noomi Rapace, and not Lisbeth Salander. Noomi’s great, wonderful, love her, but it’s the character I especially love and Mara makes Lisbeth her own. Brilliantly.
Bring on The Girl Who Played With Fire! That’s my favorite because it’s ALL about Lisbeth.