Normally when I'm really excited for a movie that I know will/want to be awesome, I over hype myself for it. I expect it to be good, so that leaves a lack of surprises. I watch the awesome movie and walk out saying "yea it was good, I knew it would be" and the movie kind of loses its appeal because I already knew what to expect in terms of quality.
With "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", I already knew what to expect and walked in knowing/hoping it would be awesome to my standards. The second the movie ended and for the next five minutes I kept saying how good the movie was. I loved this movie. I was completely engaged for two hours and forty minutes. Although Trent Reznor's great soundtrack is just ominous tones sound of bleeps, bloops and bass, it helps captures the dark and cold (literally and metaphorically) feel of the movie beautifully.
Naturally the books were better. I think people will like movie adaptations better if they always know that movies can never beat the book. I read (when I say read, I mean listened to the audio books) the unabridged Millennium Trilogy. This time around I actually read a book before seeing the movie, which is always the best way because you get to imagine what the characters look like before the movies tell you. Besides leaving out a couple of things and doing a slight (IMO) acceptable change towards the end of movie, it was pretty true to the books.
Besides the fact that none of the main characters actually sound Swedish, Daniel Craig and (especially) Rooney Mara nails it as Mikael and Lisbeth, respectively. The look and the feel of this film work real well. Fincher's opening credits scene is awesome while the cool cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant" plays. It is somewhat akin to the opening credits of Fight Club but subtly referencing via cool CGI the fucked up world/mind of Lisbeth Salander.
Since it has been a year and halfish since I read the trilogy, the movie was a nice refresher of what happened in the book. The Harriet Vanger story is great and I forgot about how the book/movie concludes with the Wennerström subplot (that wasn't a spoiler, don't worry). That part did definitely feel kind of rushed. If you haven't read the books then it might get a little confusing as to what is going on since they start to speed up things to finish up the movie. I definitely would see this again.
My Dad wants me to see it with him, which will probably be reaalllly awkward. Like the books, this is a not a movie for everyone or to watch with kids or parents. While not as intense as the books, there is a sexually disturbing scene that might not sit well with everyone.
Overall, I am really happy that this movie delivered as I hoped it would. I hate nothing more in movies when you put stock in it and it lets you down. As much as I loved the first book, I thought The Girl Who Played with Fire was a lot better. Since Fincher is doing the trilogy, I will continue to be excited as he continues to add his Fincher-y twist to these adaptations.
