The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Watched this last week. I haven’t read the novels but I’d seen the other film adaptations (watched them all in an afternoon, the characters and story were engaging, though the films themselves weren’t overly impressive). I was unimpressed with Fincher’s film.

Actually, I will go further than that to say that I think that this film illustrates that Fincher isn’t a terribly competent filmmaker. The actors did fine and the film is shot well enough but the decisions made seem unfocused. The story has social/political points that put it a little higher than a typical thriller but Fincher’s direction never rises close to that.

In fact, from the opening credits I was under the impression that this was Fincher’s attempt to make a James Bond movie. He even has Daniel Craig (who is a good enough actor and did a good enough job in the film). Fincher made a “sexy” James Bond film, which seems to subvert some of the commentary that makes the story worth paying attention to in the first place.

I don’t have a problem with remakes as a general rule. I don’t believe that there is any movie or story that can’t be remade. Fincher’s movie here, though, is an example of a completely unneccessary remake. It adds nothing and functions as little more than a mediocre thriller with better than average acting.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Official Trailer [HD] (by trailers)

So, I finally got around to watching the Millenium Trilogy yesterday. I watched all of them, back to back (roughly 6-8 hours), and when it was done I wanted more to watch. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was easily the best made film of the trilogy but the story for each were on roughly equal par.

I think the three films managed to keep my interest in a single sitting by putting the leads in three different types of thriller stories. The first being the mystery thriller “we have to solve a crime” type. The second, an on the run from the law and “we have to prove someone’s innocence” type. The third, a conspiracy thriller. The personal involvement and danger to the main characters escalated with each film. 

It’s a good trilogy from a storytelling standpoint. They form an arc as a whole but each can stand on its own as a whole film. Even The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (the third film), while dependent on the first two for backstory and the setup is a whole story on its own. The second film (The Girl Who Played With Fire) tells a whole story that doesn’t feel like you’re missing the final act of, as seems to be the case with many planned trilogies of the last decade or so (Matrix Trilogy and Pirates Trilogy come to mind). 

I’m sure I’ll have more developed thoughts on these later. They were good. It’s likely I’ll watch them again.

Source: youtube.com