Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 41 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 519 Ratings

  • Starring: Daniel Craig, Robin Wright, Rooney Mara, Stellan SkarsgĂ„rd
  • Summary: Based on Stieg Larsson's posthumously published crime thriller trilogy, "The Millennium Series." The book describes the mystery surrounding the long-unsolved disappearance of an heiress. A journalist recently dinged by a libel case and a young female hacker try to resolve it, stirring up bundles of personal and industrial corruption along the way. (Sony Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 41
  2. Negative: 1 out of 41
  1. Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    Dec 20, 2011
    100
    If there's a complaint, it's that it flirts with rambling once the main case is solved -- nearly 20 minutes before the movie ends. But Fincher uses that remaining time to expand on Lisbeth's character, which is hard to hold against him.
  2. Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    Dec 20, 2011
    80
    This is an immersive and powerful thriller, driven by terrific leading performances. It's mostly really good and then it wears out its welcome.
  3. Reviewed by: Ben Sachs
    Dec 21, 2011
    60
    The task of dramatizing this proved too difficult for Niels Arden Oplev when he directed a Swedish adaptation in 2009, but as Fincher demonstrated in "Social Network," he knows how to make information technology eerily seductive. Unfortunately Larsson's salacious plot elements - mass murder, Nazism, and the like - feel just as shallow as they did in the earlier version.
  4. Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    Dec 20, 2011
    38
    The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is, as you'd expect, rubbish, but the word is slightly too kind. The David Fincher film (like the very similar Swedish one - released in the US just last year! - and the book) is not even good rubbish.

See all 41 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 19 out of 166
  1. Following the very successful adaptation of Stieg Larssons millennium trilogy into three very successful Swedish language films, it came as no surprise when Hollywood announced that it would be making an English-language version of the series. Director David Fincher was announced to craft the first book in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The new version follows very close to the original material with one fairly big exception which I will detail later in the review. Daniel Craig stars as Mikael Blomkvist, who at the opening of the film has recently lost a court case for which he was being sued for libel by a prominent business figure. His career is in ruins and virtually all of his savings gone as a result of the trial and punitive damages. So when he is contacted by an attorney representing the wealthy and powerful Vanger family, he agrees to meet. Although highly reluctant to take a meeting, Mikael takes the four hour train ride north of Stockholm to a cold and remote island to meet with Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer). Henrik wishes Mikael to investigate the disappearance of his niece some 40 years earlier, a niece vanished under the familiesâ Expand
  2. After a very slow and unfocused first hour(out of the 2.7 hours) the film engages and impresses. Is it better than the original, no. Does it take away from the original, no. It stands on it's own. Mara is fine, but not anything award-worthy. Collapse
  3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo of Fincher was doomed from the beginning to be compare with the Swedish version. The problem is that after this comparison the American production was totally degraded. Although the story is very attractive and scary, this is not a point for this movie, because there other one has it too; then we have the plot, here the development of the actions happen in a darker atmosphere, but everything is less emotional and more carnal than the film of Niels Arden Oplev; in other words this picture is the Hollywood alter ego. And as an ultra-commercial movie have parts left over, which were shown implicit by the Swedish one (an extraordinary film is the one in which the viewer has to interpret or deduce some parts of the plot). Finally we have the contrast of the protagonists: Daniel Craig gives a weak performance, the one of Michael Nyqvist is a lot more convincing as Blomkvist. About Lisbeth Salander, which is a much more difficult role, I think Rooney Mara capture it more than Noomi Rapace, and that interpretation pulls this movie up. Expand
  4. Holy overrated dog sh*t batman!!! I don't get it!! I sat through the first 55 minutes of this excruciatingly, boring and emotionless crap. What movie did all these people see??? I know professional critics get paid off by the studios to give good reviews but do users also get money??? As of now there are 312 positive reviews for this lame movie? I need some cash so please give me the name and number of the studio head that paid all of you off to give this atrocity positive reviews. Everyone out there, SAVE YOUR MONEY AND TIME!!! AWFUL!!! Expand

See all 166 User Reviews

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