It’s unfortunate that David Fincher’s sturdy treatment of Stieg Larsson’s bestseller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - previously adapted by Niels Arden Oplev in its native Swedish tongue - will suffer from the sometimes unavoidable viewing conundrum that comes with English-language remakes of foreign films: if you’ve seen the original film, there’s very little here that will surprise. Much of the suspense and mystery, the material’s pulpy lifeblood, has gone, leaving the viewer to find other elements that may hold interest, such as tonal nuances and structural tweaks, both things which Fincher’s version has a bit of. But it’s more apparent by the end that this is simply a commercial reality, a straight-ahead make-over for movie-goers who are specifically adverse to reading subtitles. That said, it’s also superior in a number of ways, not least of all Fincher’s masterful pacing, and the fleetness in which he parses hefty investigative info into a cinematically sound experience, no small feat considering both versions still demonstrate how hard it is to streamline the narratively saggy nature of its source. Emotionally it’s more involving, particularly with regards to Lisbeth, the titular goth-punk fact-checker who’s memorably portrayed by Rooney Mara. Without her spunk and fiery heart, the film’s not much more than another airport potboiler pic, albeit stylishly directed.