Girl with Dragon Tattoo – First Trailer – Kickass Background Score

Here’s a kickass trailer from this years ‘feel-bad’ Christmas release. First of the Millenium Trilogy –  ‘Girl with Dragon Tattoo’ starring Rooney Mara as the one and only Lisbeth Salander. If you haven’t read the 3 books by late swedish author Stieg Larsson then go and read them now.

My reviews of all 3 books are on this blog, find them.

First of the movie ‘Girl with Dragon Tattoo’ is directed by David Fincher, of Social Network, and  releases on 21st December 2011. The movie also stars Bond star Daniel Craig as the journalist Mikael Blomqvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander looks perfect.

The trailer is cut wonderfully giving you the entire movie in split second shots and it is set to the Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song. Oh what a background score !!! 

I just cant get it out of my head.

Books I Read- The Girl who the kicked Hornet’s Nest

The third book of the Millenium Series by Swedish author Steig Larsson is titled ‘The Girl who kicked the Hornet’s Nest’. This book is the concluding part of the trilogy and continues right from where the 2nd book ended.

At the end of 2nd book of the series lead character Lisbeth Salander is found, by journalist Mikeal Blomkvist,  with a bullet in her head. The story continues in the hospital where Lisbeth and her father both are mortally wounded. The story continues with both of them recovering and her father being killed by a section of Swedish Secret Police. There are pages after pages dedicated to investigations and inquiries related to the cases involving murders, Lisbeth’s past and ‘Millenium’s research into secret section of the Swedish Secret Police. The story culminates with the trial of Lisbeth and to be honest is bit predictable about it. The end of course keeps you wanting for more, but you know there isnt going to be any more in this series.

This book is perhaps the weakest of the 3 and is a bit letdown as the story does not move forward much and meanders at times in the plots and sub-plots of investigations and research. There is even  a sub-plot involving  Erika Berger’s stalker which is completely irrelevant to the main plot. There are at times far too many characters and most of them doing same kind of things researching and investigating and chasing someone. There are bad guys in the form of a section of Swedish secret Police, then there are good guys in the secret police and then there is regular police with its share of good guys and bad guys and security agencies and the magazine’s own research team. It does at time get confusing with ultimately leading to nothing substantial in the plot. The main character of Lisbeth for the most time in is Hospital and is not doing much. The reader craves for Lisbeth and there is not enough of her in this book at least not in the first 600 or so pages. The last 150 or so pages deal with the trial of Lisbeth, which at times does get interesting but is shown in very caricaturish way.

The story ends with some unexpected action in the end and a happy conclusion although I doubt if the author had any thoughts of terminating this series this way. I am sure the 4th book was in the pipeline for this series, sadly the author passed away unexpectedly after he finished writing the 3rd book.

The main problem for this book as I see is that it does not have anything fresh to say, it doesn’t have a new mystery and is simply a continuation of the mystery of the 2nd book, which was more or less wrapped up in the 2nd book itself. The reader does feel bored at times as there is too much of talks and not much action and certainly very less of Lisbeth. Also you cannot read this book without reading the 2nd book,as the story continues from it. The 1st book was quite independent that way.

The character of computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist stays with you even after the book ends and you certainly crave for more and want to know what happened to their lives, especially Lisbeth. Although this book isnt the best to finish the series, one still gets engrossed reading in it and never wants it to finish.

My Ratings: 8/10 –  Slightly weaker than the first 2 books but you HAVE to read it to know how it all ends.

P.S. I have read about rumors that there IS a fourth book,  written by Steig Larsson before he died and finished by his long time lover but is currently under dispute between Larsson’s partner and his parents. Perhaps one day it would come out !!

The Social Network – Become a Fan !!

Anyone who’s reading this review has a Facebook account,  well almost. Most of you would be aware  of what Facebook is and how it has changed our lives , at least a part of it in last few years. What started as a simple site about matching profiles and finding the ‘hottest’ girl on Harvard Campus has become a huge Internet giant with an approximate membership of over 500 Million people. If facebook were a country then its population would be 3rd behind China and India. Need I say more.

The Social Network is a movie based on the book ‘Accidental Billionaires’  (Here’s Link to my Review) written by Ben Mezrich. The story covers the life of young Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Sevrin and how a simple college project became a worldwide phenomenon. It of course tells the story from the ‘other’ side i.e. not from Mark’s perspective but from Eduardo’s perspective who not only feels cheated by Mark but filed lawsuit against Mark to get what he claimed was due to him. Zuckerberg at age of 25 is the youngest billionaire in the world today and his meteoric rise thanks to a ‘project of vengeance’ is remarkably shown but as they say every rose comes with a thorns.

The movie by David Fincher is a masterpiece in art of storytelling, brilliant script,  witty dialogues, excellent acting by the leads and even supporting cast. The movie is an interesting exploration of the events that has led up to the most influential invention of today’s generation.  The movie lets the user decide on which side they are, it makes the user think. Mark’s character is shown to be arrogant and nerdy and introvert and eccentric genius and selfish at times yet its in a way sad and sympathetic. The character of Mark is shown in such a way that you feel sorry for the guy and angry at him at the same time.Mark Zuckerberg in spite of making a tool to involve 500 Million people is still a loner in the end of the movie and the last scene where he tried to befriend his ex-girlfriend makes you feel sad for the guy who has everything in the world at his feet but doesn’t have a friend to share it with.

Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg gives an Oscar worthy performance and Andrew Garfield as Eduardo matches him. Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker (of Napster fame) is excellent and watchout for Rooney Mara ( linked to the Millenium Series movies) as Erica Albright in a brief role.

The only minor issue with the film is that its highly talkative and fast moving with several flashbacks which unless you are familiar with the story or have read the book is at times difficult to follow. The film has some real witty dialogues  and  jokes but they are more relevant to an American audience than the Indian audience. Sadly, the film is not surprisingly running to empty houses as Indian audiences are not used to watching quality Hollywood cinema and prefer action and CGI effects to a real story !!

My Ratings :  8.5/10 –  Drop everything and watch this gem and Answer this – Would you add Mark Zuckerberg as your friend on Facebook?

Books I Read – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I had heard a lot about the ‘Millenium Series’ books since some time and came across them in bookstores at various points of time but never felt like reading the books as at first I thought they would be some ‘preachy- self-help’ kind of books!!  Then I heard about the Swedish movies made from the books and also the fact that Hollywood is coming up with its own version of movies soon and I had to read them now ! The author of this, ‘Millenium Series’ as they call it, is Stieg Larsson and the books are originally Swedish books. Unfortunately the young author wrote the manuscripts of the 3 books and died and never lived to see the International success the books have become.

The first of the series is ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. The book takes its own sweet time to establish lead characters, relationships, families, back stories, the settings, the crime etc. Once it does that it becomes a great ‘page-turner’.

The story is about a disgraced journalist being asked to find out details of a murder that took place forty years back.  The missing girl being the grand niece of a millionaire grand patriarch of the Vanger family, Henrik Vanger., head of the Conglomerate Vanger Corporation. Henrik suspects that a family member of his large family murdered his favorite grand niece forty years back during a family gathering and is still tormenting him. Mikael Blomkvist is the disgraced journalist of the ‘Millenium’ magazine who is assigned the job to research the truth.  Lisbeth Salander the heroine of the story is a young, antisocial, punk, anorexic of a girl who on first look would resemble a drug addict junkie with tattoos all over the body, dyed short hair, leather jackets, pierced nose and an attitude to match but in fact she is an expert computer hacker with a photographic memory and a passion for retrieving information about anything and anyone at any cost. Lisbeth and Mikael cross paths and together they create a wonderful team.

The interaction and subtle romance  between Lisbeth and Mikael, who is twicer her age is beautifully written.  The settings of the fictional town in North Sweden is described in such exquisite details, that you want to go there and live. The details of the Vanger family with multiple family members having varied back stories and complex realtionships is also described in quite details. The story is at times predictable but then comes up with wonderful twists and turns.

There are quite a few characters in the book, however the story revolves around Mikael first and then Lisbeth. The story moves slowly first but very rapidly as it nears the end and combines the personal vengeance very well with the murder mystery. The story is also about crimes against women , especially crude sexual crimes and the author seems to be simply hating the people associated with such crimes. The Swedish title of the book literally translates to ‘Men who Hate Women’.

The story is very intriguing and is much better than any other thriller mystery novel I have read lately. The book is intelligent, witty and has real smart characters. It is certainly one of the best crime novels of this era.

The characters of Lisbeth and Mikael are very well developed and you really want to know more about them, especially Lisbeth. Hopefully the next 2 books in the series will reveal more aspects of her mysterious life.

The Swedish version of the movies made from the 3 books has already been released and even dubbed in English for worldwide release, however Sony Pictures have aligned with David Fincher to produce big budget Hollywood version of the same books possibly starring Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkwist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. It would certainly be a great watch.

But first, I am reading the other 2 books.

My Ratings : 8.5/10 –  Must Read …one of the most Important Series of this new Millenium.