The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
After seeing the new adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel, I am fairly confused. I do not know whether I prefer this version to the 2009 Swedish interpretation and I don't think I ever will know. David Fincher's direction is certainly better and I probably prefer the acting in this version more. Rooney Mara's portrayal of Lisbeth Salander did more for me and for the complexity of the character than did Noomi Rapace.
In this version Mikael and Lisbeth's stories are told separately for close to half of the movie before they converge.
Although Mikael and Lisbeth have a sexual encounter in both versions... the Hollywood film spins it into more of a love triangle subplot of sorts (Naturally).
The scenes of torture and sexual abuse seem to be more overwhelming in this version... although my being more uncomfortable may have been due to seeing the film with my girlfriend who has not seen the original film and was seeing this grotesqueness for the first time.
The score was excellent... Trent Reznor delivered again following up his terrific score of Fincher's previous film, The Social Network.
The tone/mood in this version is on par with the original... dark, gloomy, uncomfortable, eerie... whatever you want to call it.
Maybe I'm stupid, but I expected the movie to be set in America for some reason. I didn't like at all that the movie was still set in Sweden yet the characters were speaking English. This held me back from being pulled into the story like I was with the original. I knew I was watching a movie. This movie easily could have been set in Alaska, Maine, Minnesota, etc... even Canada would have made more sense as some people in Canada speak English.
Both films are excellent in their own way. I think the original didn't really need to be improved dramatically so there weren't many changes. The success of the Americanization of this franchise will be judged more in depth by the finished product including "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" and "The Girl Who Played With Fire", neither of which received critical acclaim comparable to "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". I haven't heard anything about Hollywood producing remakes of the sequels but hopefully they do... or making this film was just silly and pointless.
Note: This is my first review in a long, long time. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I didn't use any sources other than my memory... I haven't regressed too much in my film review analyses.
Now for the trailers...
21 Jump Street: Looked to be a fairly amusing comedy starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as poor cops turned undercover narcs sent to a high school pretending to be students. Jonah Hill looks like a convincing teenager again... Channing Tatum does not. The jokes weren't laugh out loud funny meaning it's simply not that funny, or for once a production company did the right thing by not putting the funniest scenes in the trailer for a comedy.
John Carter: Looked like garbage... Avatar mixed with the muppets in Return of the Jedi. No thank you.
Ghost Rider: As soon as I saw Nicholas Cage (The first 5 seconds of the trailer) I was immediately disinterested. I can't stand Nicholas Cage. My bias certainly isn't the only reason why this movie looks like it's going to suck. Trust me... it's going to suck.
Haywire: Ohhhh I get it Steven Soderbergh... let's just make "The Bourne Identity" and then substitute Jason Bourne with a female character... the audience will never know! Female action hero movies are becoming more and more popular as of late. I'll stick with the "Kill Bill" movies and "V for Vendetta"... even "Femme Fatale" is an excellent film in comparison to the likes of "Haywire" and "Salt".
Contraband: Mark Wahlberg has always been and will always be a bipolar actor. He literally alternates between making crappy action movies and making excellent dramatic films. His last movie was "The Fighter"... so you know exactly what kind of movie "Contraband" will be.
Gone: Amanda Seyfried isn't that bad of an actress... she had me more than convinced in "Chloe". Can somebody please give her a decent role? Looks like "Taken", if the girl in "Taken" was relying on her sister to find her and her kidnapper rather than her father.
The Devil Inside: If this doesn't end up being the scariest movie of all time then the trailer just trolled everybody who ends up seeing it. As you can assume from the title, this is an exorcism movie. Exorcisms scare me more than anything (Other than spiders). "The Exorcist" did nothing for me as I found it to be outdated and cheesy... sorry to anybody who considers it to be the scariest movie of all time like so many people do. I've never seen "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". At first I didn't see it because I was terrified by the trailer and then I didn't see it because I heard it sucked. I will see this movie even though the trailer was making me cringe. The fact that it takes place in Rome is awesome. The only negative already is that the film opens with a "Real 911 call" (Like so many thrillers these days do). People on the IMDb.com forums are already arguing whether or not the story is real.
When will Hollywood stop saying their horror movies are real for shock value?
Topic: What's the Last Movie You Watched? (Read 981033 times)