Girl with the Dragon Tattoo film (Daniel Craig)

I heard such good things about this film and the book, that I really wanted to see it very badly. While it has some very strong points, I had some serious issues.

The audio quality was one of the worst I have heard recently. I couldn't understand much of the dialogue even though there was no real effort to adopt accents (even though the setting was Sweden). My brother who is in his 40's said the same thing. A few blog entries complained they missed a great deal of the dialogue. It's a real problem with a thriller, mystery when you don't know what they are saying. If it was an artistic choice, then I am doubly dissapointed.

The characters who seem to be brilliant, both walk into a house for no valid reason and set themselves up to be brutally attacked. The girl gets herself raped in one of the most explicit scenes I' ve seen in an American film, and the guy gets himself attacked in very much the same way. It had a continuity problem.

It's a little long. I know the story matched the first book, but it seemed like it went into an unrelated plotline at the end. I felt that they should have used it to kick off the second movie.

I have to say that this movie should not to be missed, on TV. It's really not worth going to the theater to see.

In general it is sad to see this author come into this much international success only after he died at the age of 50.

I rather enjoyed it. My complaint, there's alot going on, I almost need to see it twice.

Ken

I pretty much agree with Paco. The movie has just about everything going for it, except I couldn't keep up with the plot, and thus didn't really care. A common problem when trying to adapt a book to film. The first hour went rather slow in developing the characters. However, the rest went too fast as I couldn't keep track of who was who, and what was going on.

Paco mentioned the rape scene. Indeed, that was pretty strong. A Clockwork Orange was still stronger, but I see Paco said "American film," so no disagreement there.

I didn't have any issue with the audio quality. That may be due to where Paco saw the movie. However, I would like to take issue with what seemed like a deliberate attempt to make the entire movie seems like a cold grey Scandinavia day. Okay, that is where the movie took place, but even indoor scenes seemed digitized to make it deliberately uncolorful. This technique has worked in other movies, like Saving Private Ryan and O Brother Where Art Thou, but in this case it didn't seem natural.

I'd give it a generous 7 on the 0 to 10 scale. The person I went with gave it a 6.

Quote: pacomartin

The audio quality was one of the worst I have heard recently. I couldn't understand much of the dialogue even though there was no real effort to adopt accents (even though the setting was Sweden)..

Thats a deal breaker for me, I would have left.
In the next to last last Harry Potter movie I could
understand about 1 in 5 words those kids with
the heavy accents were saying and I left the
theatre, my wife rode home with her sister. Life
is too short.

A lot of TV is the same way - either too loud or unaudibly quiet. Used to really piss me off. Finally get the sucker turned way up to hear the quiet stuff, and then a commercial blasts your head off. I now use a wireless headset that helps tremendously. Bob, are you sure life is not too long?

the swedish films were much better. seeing this movie really let me down. way too many details were left out. the swedish version was much deeper. i hate how they changed the part at the end where martin drives off the road and his car just blows up. in the swedish version, it had much more meaning. when martin was getting ready to torture bloomquist he talks about how he loves to see the hope completely vanish in his victims eyes finally realizing their fate. in the swedish version when his car goes off the road, the car flips over upside down and lisbeth walks up to him. he reaches out to lisbeth pleading for her to help him. she does nothing and the hope vanishes from his eyes just like with his victims. then the car blows up. but the american film skips all that.

"Clockwork Orange" >>> I might be the only person to not of seen this film yet, its decent?

Ken

It's a must-see IMO. After seeing it I could understand why it had such an influence on British punk music and subculture.

I saw it on the second weekend. Love Daniel Craig and David Fincher so I was looking forward to a dark flick. Opening credits were awesome I thought, with the Nine Inch Nails version of Led Zep's "Immigrant Song" against a typical Reznor-style background. The movie fell from there. Way too long, and the first hour was a sleeper. I woke up in time for the rape scene, which Lisbeth got even for 30 minutes later in awesome fashion (bastard's lucky she let him live at all IMO). Without giving too much away near the end, after seeing Craig as James Bond being so badass, it was unbelievable that he'd get himself into that unbecoming situation. Lisbeth was homely in the beginning, but grew on me by the middle, and her androgeny was sorta appealing eventually; and she really prettied up in the last minutes. Loved her shirt as seen in the below pic, which appropriately summed up her whole personality for this role "F*ck You, you f*cking f*ck". This movie was the first of four to be made from the three books.

Christopher Plummer is in it, I'll see it
on DVD. The guy still makes 2-4 movies
a year in his 80's.

I haven't seen the English version, but unless they capture the sullen demeanor of the lead, like Noomi Rapace did, it will be hard to match the original.
I don't know if she was considered for the role.

Quote: victorimmature

I don't know if she was considered for the role.

I don't think so. Rapace played the part in all three movies. I would think that they would want an actress who would be willing to play the part in up to four movies. Presuming they get 4 movies out of the 3 books. The Swedish version had a budget of $13 m, and $104 m in worldwide boxoffice, while the English language version had a $90m budget and only $107m in worldwide boxoffice so far.

With the Swedish film being one of the most successful non-English films of the past ten years, having the same actress would invite too many comparisons. Offhand the only time that I remember a principal role that was reprised in the foreign language version and the English version was Penelope Cruz's part in Abre los Ojos / Vanilla Sky.

Quote: pacomartin

I don't think so. Rapace played the part in all three movies. I would think that they would want an actress who would be willing to play the part in up to four movies. Presuming they get 4 movies out of the 3 books. The Swedish version had a budget of $13 m, and $104 m in worldwide boxoffice, while the English language version had a $90m budget and only $107m in worldwide boxoffice so far.

With the Swedish film being one of the most successful non-English films of the past ten years, having the same actress would invite too many comparisons. Offhand the only time that I remember a principal role that was reprised in the foreign language version and the English version was Penelope Cruz's part in Abre los Ojos / Vanilla Sky.

I'm not surprised the originals were successful.
They were more entertaining than most of the crap produced today.

Quote: victorimmature

I'm not surprised the originals were successful.
They were more entertaining than most of the crap produced today.

Its the neo-noir and its various marketing-oriented classifications: tartan noir, Scandinavian noir, etc.

Police procedural novels no longer feature young admirable characters. Police officers are middle aged, alcoholic, career-threatened individuals with several major character traits that are by no means admirable.

Bleak landscapes in natural lighting... nothing new there. No Country For Old Men shot the opening sequence of the aftermath of a drug buy gone bad in two segments: dawn and dusk.

Quote: FleaStiff

Its the neo-noir and its various marketing-oriented classifications: tartan noir, Scandinavian noir, etc.

Police procedural novels no longer feature young admirable characters. Police officers are middle aged, alcoholic, career-threatened individuals with several major character traits that are by no means admirable.

Bleak landscapes in natural lighting... nothing new there. No Country For Old Men shot the opening sequence of the aftermath of a drug buy gone bad in two segments: dawn and dusk.

In my opinion, Hollywood's standards have slipped over the past few decades.
They seem to be too focused on making a quick buck.
Foreign fims are often superior, if you can put up with the sub-titles.

Quote: victorimmature

Foreign films are often superior, if you can put up with the sub-titles.

The only thing worse than the subtitles is watching a film with someone who knows the language and laughs at the inadequacy of the subtitles.

Quote: victorimmature

In my opinion, Hollywood's standards have slipped over the past few decades.
They seem to be too focused on making a quick buck.

Hollywood has always been that way. It was actually
worse in the past. Before VCR's and TV there was no
market for old movies anywhere. You made your money
fast and furious in the first couple weeks of the movies
release. The major studio's cranked out a movie a week
in the 30's and 40's, now its just a few a year. And today
they make half their profits months down the road on
DVD's.

Quote: EvenBob

Hollywood has always been that way. It was actually worse in the past. Before VCR's and TV there was no market for old movies anywhere. You made your money fast and furious in the first couple weeks of the movies release. The major studio's cranked out a movie a week in the 30's and 40's, now its just a few a year. And today they make half their profits months down the road on DVD's.

Well in the old days they had a lot of levels of budgets. Those movies that took a week or two to shoot were the equivalent of a TV series today.

But today, most movies make all their profit after the theatrical release. You are considered lucky if the theatrical box office pays you back your production and marketing costs.

But today, there are very few major productions that have little or no interest to people 18 or under. In that way the market has almost completely changed.

Quote: FleaStiff

The only thing worse than the subtitles is watching a film with someone who knows the language and laughs at the inadequacy of the subtitles.

Well, dubbing is worse, so the only alternative is to learn the language.

Wizard, here are the 9 Spanish language submittals for the Academy Awards.

Argentina: Aballay, el hombre sin miedo (Aballay), Fernando Spiner
Chile: Violeta Se Fue a los Cielos (Violeta Went to Heaven), Andrés Wood
Colombia: Los Colores de la Montaña (The Colors of the Mountain), Carlos César Arbeláez
Cuba: Habanastation, Ian Padrón
Mexico: Miss Bala, Gerado Naranjo
Peru: Octubre (October), Diego and Daniel Vega
Spain: Pa Negre (Black Bread), Agustí Villaronga
Uruguay: La Casa Muda (The Silent House), Gustavo Hernández
Venezuela: El Rumor de las Piedras (The Rumble of the Stones), Alejandro Bellame

Quote: pacomartin

But today, there are very few major productions that have little or no interest to people 18 or under. In that way the market has almost completely changed.

This certainly seems to be where the emphasis is.
Too many childrens movies.

Quote: pacomartin

Well in the old days they had a lot of levels of budgets. Those movies that took a week or two to shoot were the equivalent of a TV series today.

Very true. But in the 30's and 40's, 90+% of
the public saw at least one movie a week, until
TV ruined it for them. So quantity was replaced
with more quality, and a new market
opened up for the whole industry, showing old
movies on TV. I remember in 1961, when NBC
started Saturday Night at the Movies. This was
a huge deal at our house, we made popcorn and
the whole fam watched. It was the first time a
network was showing modern movies, made in
the last 5-10 years. Before that it was just
crappy B movies made in the 30's and 40's.
Tons of westerns and comedies. The huge event
of the year in the 50's and 60's was the airing
of The Wizard of Oz. It was always on a Sunday
night and we talked about it for weeks beforehand.
And we'd seen it many times already. A different
time for sure, talk about being easily entertained.

Quote: pacomartin

Wizard, here are the 9 Spanish language submittals for the Academy Awards.

Thanks. I just tried to put them in my Netflix queue, but Netflix didn't recognize the titles. Probably too early. Please remind me in about six months.