Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Movie)

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.

Book with a Suggestive Title

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It sounds like it's supposed to be elusive, mysterious and exotic. The object of having such a title of a book is obviously to perk interest and arouse intrigue.

Except that a girl with a dragon tattoo is hardly intriguing. Isn't a dragon one of the most common tattoos along with hearts, roses and Chinese symbols? There are certainly hundreds of girls out there with dragon tattoos. Wait, hundreds is probably UNDERestimating. Thousands at least. So what makes this girl special and what makes this book special?

Well, not very much to be perfectly honest. At least, not in the case of the book. I will admit that the character of Lisbeth Salander is interesting and, I suppose, special. She is not your typical detective. The main surprise regarding her character, however I didn't find at all surprising. Unfortunately, you would have to read the book to find out what that is. Which I wouldn't stop you from doing.

I am not saying that the book is terrible. What I am trying to say is that it is not the amazing piece of literature that people make it out to be. It is a mystery novel, and for a mystery novel I found it quite difficult to get through. The first half of the book drags quite a lot. It is a description of the lives of Lisbeth Salander, a freelancer working for a security company who tends to dig into peoples lives and is particularly good at it, and Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who has just been found guilty of libel and is about to spend some time in jail. Salander is hired by a lawyer to run a background check on Blomkvist, as the lawyer's client is interested in hiring him for a special job.

The job is where the story starts to get interesting, and is only really mentioned (aside from the prologue) about a quarter of the way through the novel. And it still takes another quarter for the job to get interesting. Sure, there is a suspicion of murder which draws the reader's attention, but then another quarter of the book is spent detailing a past of the family involved, a past that, while it has interesting moments, is not all that interesting overall, I found.

And then, halfway through, the drama really starts with discoveries of information, heart attacks and Blomkvist finding out about and meeting Salander. From halfway through the book, I struggled to put it down. I really started enjoying the novel and finding it interesting, and it is because of the second half that I am not completely against the reading of it. I would just recommend being prepared to trudge through the dregs to get to the good part.

So overall, the book is only half good. Whether that is good enough to justify the great press would be up to you to decide. I don't think so. Tons of people do. If you've read the book, let me know what you think!