After a recent conversation with Kenobi/Romulus, I came to a conclusion about my recent rant about David Fincher's remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
I kind of came off as a whiny fanboy.
Yeah, that happens to everyone at some point. You have a problem with some form of pop culture and you lose your genuine points of criticism in the middle of your ranting.
Now, I will not take back everything I said, because I still believe in most of it. I thought the movie felt overly long and spoon fed for mass consumption. I thought Daniel Craig was only adequate and gave no "oomph" to which I thought the role required. And Rooney Mara while going for broke, just didn't do much for me.
However, I will back up on one thing. I am now kinda interested to see what they will do with Part 2 and 3 which are basically an extended chase film stretched between two films and see if they can do anything better. Plus, I am curious of who they will get to potray the hulking, sociopathic Niedermann.
I still stand by my main claim; that the filmmakers had the best of the trilogy and they bungled it. I will stand by that. And even though, I probably will see the other ones, I am still not going to buy them. They just don't sit well with me. But now I admit I was perhaps too harsh on the film.
It took me a few days to realize what my biggest problem with the remake was when it hit the other night. My problem was I knew and IT FELT like a Hollywood production. Let me explain. Foriegn films are just that; foriegn, unknown to the common consumer. Though the themes they touch on may be universal, the actors are usually unknown, the film are in another language, and thus performances have to carry more.
When I saw the Millenium Trilogy for the first time, I knew nothing about it. What made it great was that is what so unknown. I didn't know the actors and actresses and that was a good thing. They didn't look like them. They looked like normal people, which gave an air of authencity and reality that Hollywood could never provide. Michael Nyqist is actually one of Sweden's most beloved actors but I had no foreknowledge of that. He was just a guy acting his ass off along with newcomer Noomi Rapace who gave everything to their performances.
And I think that's the nail on the head for me. When I was watching David Fincher's version, it didn't feel plausible because I couldn't immerse myself like other films. I didn't see Mikael Blomkist on the screen, I was like "Look, it's James Bond playing a reporter!" The other recognizable faces of machine glossed Hollywood took me out of a bit of what was supposed to be a down and gritty mystery.
Maybe I'm reading into this too much. Still, there is much to be said of the unknown of the foriegn film market and its ability to envoke plausibility by its differences to U.S. culture.
But what I do know? I'm just a fanboy. On the other hand so is everyone else, whether they admit or not. Everyone has an opinion. This is mine.
Until next time fly high and fly well.
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