A few months ago, I wrote a review on the book Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Follow the link to see my review of the book, if you dare. It wasn't a great review, because I didn't particularly enjoy the book. But, nonetheless, I found myself going to the movie. And I have to say, I found it far better.
What bugged me a lot about the book was the way it was written, paying attention to silly details and skimming over important ones. The movie gets going very quickly where the book was slow to start with. There is no time spared on unimportant details like computer brands (though there is definitely a lot of product placement). The mystery aspect of the book is also good from the get go. There is less family history explained in the movie and more focus on the matter at hand, which is what is most important.
I must say though, that sensitive viewers are not likely to enjoy parts of the movie at least. There are some very gruesome scenes, a lot of explicit behaviour and a lot of nudity. There is also a violent rape scene which many have condemned. It is horrifying, of course, but, in my mind, partly necessary. It is a movie that does not hold back. It takes the best, most interesting, most horrifying, most exciting parts of the book and it stitches them together into something that makes sense.
As always, there are some things that are left out of the movie and some things that are changed, but for the most part I found that the things that were left out benefitted the movie rather than detracted from it, and the things that were changed were done so that the storyline made sense. Nothing UBER important was missing and that is the important thing.
Overall, where I would have given the book perhaps a 5/10, I would give the movie a 7/10. I certainly thought that it was an improvement, which is saying quite something since it is usually the other way around when it comes to movies.
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