I want to preface my review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by saying I’ve never read the popular series - but I have seen the original film (and loved it).

I had some hesitations about an unnecessary remake of an already great film. The original was incredible; I was sucked into it. Working at Blockbuster, I got to see how many people turned the original away the second I said “foreign” or “subtitled” (to which many customers would say “what does THAT mean?”). It was a shame because the film was engrossing and the subject matter was fascinating. It’s no surprise that someone would step in and try to make money on a popular series like this. I love Fincher and respect his work, and was really eager to see what he was going to bring audiences. Surprisingly enough, he was able to cut out his own version of a story I had already seen.

There’s not much room for commenting on the acting in this film. I thought it was good, but subconsciously kept comparing it to the original. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara did a great job in their roles and helped convince the audience of their parts, but there was something overly “Hollywood” about their presence in the film. 

The only thing the film lacked for me was a sense of authenticity. The story was set in Sweden, and the original film starred Swedish actors - all playing the role perfectly. The actors were so naturally Nordic already; this just helped the film along and made it believable. Fincher’s remake unfortunately lacked this authenticity. Many of the actors either played up a muddled Swedish accent, or played it naturally in a British accent. I almost felt like it was forced, like we were forced into hearing a dubbing of a film made specifically for North American audiences.

On the upside, Fincher’s film moved along at a faster pace than its Swedish counterpart, it felt like it was a much more concise film. Even though the films are similar in length, Fincher’s film felt less expansive and deserted.

I feel like I could talk about this film for a long time, so I’ll spare you my little criticisms either way. I highly recommend checking this film out. I recommend checking BOTH out and making your own decisions! They’re both great films and tell one fantastic story.

If you haven’t seen The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this would be a great introduction to a compelling “whodunit”. If you’re interested in the story and subject matter afterwards, I would recommend watching the original version.

Sidenote: The introduction credits to this film were outstanding. Honestly they were mind-blowing how good they were. I wish they were online in HD so I could watch them on loop.

Much like my Captain America review - I found Cowboys and Aliens to be a “fun” film. It was a great flick to sit down and turn your mind off to. I should preface whatever I say next by saying that I generally dislike any films or TV shows that are set in the past. Any past. I can usually stomach from the seventies on, but anything earlier than that and my brain shuts off and I can’t pay attention any more. I was afraid that Cowboys and Aliens would be that way too, but I was interested the whole way through.

Jon Favreau bowed out from directing another Iron Man film to do this one, and I was just incredibly thankful he chose to do something like this and not another Elf or Zathura (not that there’s anything wrong with them). The film is slow from time to time, but I think that just comes with the Western territory. If you’re going to direct a film set in the old west, you’re going to experience bouts of slowly paced narrative that take place. I think injecting aliens into this formula helped stir things up though as each time the film was just about to get slow and alien spaceship would show up and blow something up, or capture someone.

I also had this weird sense of Daniel Craig’s American accent. I was completely aware of it every time he spoke, but it didn’t affect his acting. He really stole the show away from other notable actors like Harrison Ford and character actor Sam Rockwell. Olivia Wilde did a good job but came across as plain against the sea of interesting characters. I should warn everyone right now that after seeing the trailer for the film so many times I was able to unfortunately piece together a decent amount of the story, so there are a lot of possible interpretations of what can be considered “spoilers”. If you’re like me and you don’t like having things spoiled - forget all about the trailers and go in with a fresh mind.

The action in the film wasn’t too over the top or insane, but I felt like maybe it was the only thing it was missing. After watching long stretches of the film where people were just wandering around a desert, it felt like the two to three minutes of intense action wasn’t enough in the end. The film didn’t suffer for it, but after watching Favreau’s Iron Man, I no have really high hopes for his direction of what can be considered “action” films and hope the next one delivers more of just that.