FAMILIARITY breeds nagging  comparisons rather than  contempt in David Fincher’s  English-language remake of  Niels Arden Oplev’s acclaimed  crime thriller, adapted from the  best-seller by Stieg Larsson.

It’s been less than two years  since British audiences gnawed  their nails to the cuticle watching  the graphically violent original –  the opening chapter of a trilogy  also comprising The Girl Who  Played With Fire and The Girl Who  Kicked The Hornets’ Nest.

The Scandinavian co-production  was grimy and gritty, and  deservedly garnered lead actress  Noomi Rapace numerous plaudits  for her mesmerising portrayal of an  emotionally damaged computer  hacker.

Fincher’s version oozes style  from the eye-catching opening  credits, which marries Trent  Reznor’s electro re-working of Led  Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song with  startling images of oil slithering  over body parts and modern  technology.

The Oscar-nominated director  delivers an eye-catching cinematic  experience, aided by  cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth,  who captures the stark beauty and  fragility of the wintry Swedish  locales.

Editing is snappy too for the set  pieces, including fisticuffs in a  subway station and a night-time  chase along perilous roads.

However, plot mechanics which  creaked two years ago still haven’t  been oiled by screenwriter Steven  Zaillian.
He remains faithful to Larsson’s novel, including unsettling scenes of sexual abuse, but does depart dramatically from the source text for a more cute and conventional ending.

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist  (Daniel Craig, left) is found guilty of  slandering a prominent  industrialist in his magazine  Millennium, edited by on-off lover  Erika Berger (Robin Wright).

With his reputation in tatters,  Mikael accepts a commission from  the reclusive Henrik Vanger  (Christopher Plummer).

The old man is haunted by the  disappearance of his great-niece  Harriet almost 40 years ago and he  hopes that the discredited  journalist will be able to deduce  who abducted and killed the  teenager.

Taking up residence on the  Vanger estate, the hack begins his  investigation and he is soon aided  by computer expert Lisbeth  Salander (Rooney Mara, right), who  has valuable insights to the case.

Together, the unlikely sleuths  follow the trail of secrets and lies,  trusting no one as skeletons  tumble out of the Vanger closet.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is as emotionally cold as the barren lands where the case unfolds and Fincher’s film isn’t helped by Craig’s charisma-free portrayal of a man on a mission.

His fleeting, half-hearted attempts at an accent are blown away by the icy wind.

Thankfully, Mara is beguiling as the tattooed and pierced avenging angel with a brilliant mind, although she falls short of Rapace’s heartbreaking interpretation.

Supporting performances are solid, notably Plummer as a wily patriarch, who beholds the rest of his clan with disdain.

Audiences unfamiliar with Larsson’s book or the original film will guess the final twist identity well before Fincher’s film spills the blood of the guilty.

18, 158 minutes, RATING: if you’ve seen the original 6/10, if you haven’t 7/10