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Both Mara and Craig delivered fine performances, but in comparison to the Swedish versions of the film it is Craig who manages to stand head and shoulders above his Swedish counterpart Michael Nyqvist.  Craig oozes the sexual charisma necessary for the role and came off like more of a freewheeling and rugged investigative reporter & playboy rather than a mildly dowdy magazine editor like Nyqvist did in the Swedish version.

While I personally preferred Noomi Rapace’s turn as the researcher/hacker recruited to help solve this mystery, Rooney Mara did turn in a star making performance as Lisbeth Salander.  Mara made the character a little more her own, giving the character more of a manic and unhinged edge and it still worked quite well.  An incredibly strong supporting cast with the likes of Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Joely Richardson, Robin Wright and Steven Berkoff showing up in a variety of roles, but this film shines with Craig’s animal magnetism, Mara’s raw sexual energy and the fantastic charisma between the two on screen.

The picture and sound on the Blu-Ray are simply fantastic creating an incredibly immersive experience as it is designed to be played loud.  Special Features on this set include a feature length commentary track with director David Fincher as well as an extensive dig deep inside the Vanger archives with nearly 4 hours of behind the scenes footage, interviews, rehearsals, screen tests and much more.

Ultimately this version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” stands on its own from all other version, as this is probably the first version of the film that felt truly epic in scope. Even though it admittedly took me 2 viewings to get to this point, I certainly hope that Fincher steps behind the camera to do the other two books in this trilogy.