You can't make your own mind up as to whether you felt your time was wasted? To answer your question, the tattoo had nothing to do with anything really. Not sure why that matters.
The movie's real title is "Men Who Hate Women" but understandably, it was thought this might not meet with universal approval so something a bit less contentious was dreamed up. The tattoo, impressive as it is, has no relevance at all.
so why name the film girl with dragon tatoo? they could have named it the girl that helps solve the mystery of a girl disappearance who may or may not be a lesbian
Who are you kidding? You think slate.com is a product or some two bit user made podcast site? What rock have you been hiding under? What next, are you going to accuse me of being mark kermode?
Well don't worry everyone. The good old suits in Hollywood are planning a US English remake, so those nasty subtitles will be no more, and you can have a naturally much better film as a result.
I'm not sure how the other two films have been shot but I do know that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was actually filmed as a two part 90 minutes apiece TV drama. It only got edited and was given a European cinema release when it was realised just how much the continent wanted to see it.