Rooney Mara (left) and Noomi Rapace (right) as Lisbeth Salander.

When the first trailer for the English-language adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hit a few months ago, most of us were kind of confused—even those of us who had read Stieg Larsson’s books. Sure, it LOOKED super badass; it basically assaulted our senses by bombarding us with quickly cut images while blaring an industrial rock version of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.” But what were we left with at the end of it?... Nothing much, really. It told us pretty much nothing about the film—including how Rooney Mara was coming along as the new Lisbeth Salander.

But now, a new, extended trailer has made an appearance! This one answers most of the questions that the previous trailer posed, from the simple “What the hell is this thing actually about?” down to a first look at the acting. Take a peek here:

I knew Daniel Craig would be perfect for Mikael Blomqvist the second I heard he had been cast, and this just confirms that fact. But, Bettys, I ask you this: Who’s the better Lisbeth Salander? Rooney Mara? Or Noomi Rapace, who played the kick-ass hacker in the original Swedish film adaptation of the book?

I’ve gone back and forth on what I think about Rooney Mara fairly frequently. When I first heard she had landed the role, I kind of went, “Huh? THIS sweet young thing is going to be Salander?” But then when I saw the first photos of her on set, I started to warm up to her a little more—she certainly didn’t look like a sweet young thing anymore, which gave me hope that maybe she’d be able to pull it off. The teaser trailer didn’t push me one way or the other, since I couldn’t really figure out what was going on it; but now there’s this new trailer, and… I’m kind of back on the fence again. I know Salander is famously disconnected from the world, but somehow, I’m not getting “disconnected” from Rooney. I’m just getting sort of blah.

Then again, it’s possible that I’m just having a hard time ridding myself of Noomi Rapace’s Salander. Her portrayal was spot-on, and I got kind of attached to it. It’s also possible that at the end of the day, neither performance will end up being “better” than the other; the neat thing that can happen when different actors play the same role is that they’re both equally good—but they’re also totally different. And that makes for a supremely interesting viewing experience.

For comparison’s sake, here’s the trailer from the original Swedish film with Noomi:

What do you think, Bettys? Are you in Rooney Mara’s camp or Noomi Rapace’s? Or both? Or neither? We want to know! And we want to talk about it with you!

Lucia Peters is BettyConfidential's associate editor. She is overly concerned with film adaptations of her favorite books.

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