Flickan som lekte med elden 2009

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Delivers its first jolts moments after the opening credits and serves up surprisingly tender moments amidst the suspense and heart-pounding action. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The satisfactions it offers are those of above-average serial television. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Downbeat and turgid, the brainy movie turns a literary sensation into summer homework. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: A remarkably flaccid effort -- much lamer than its predecessor, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which was pedestrian and sleazy but hit its marks. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The shadowy connections between her various adversaries, or torturers, can be difficult to keep straight. Still, everything makes sense, apart from a few giddy leaps of logic, and the commanding figure of Ms. Rapace always fills center stage. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The movie is never less than compelling, particularly when Rapace is on screen, but director Daniel Alfredson can't quite find the delicate tension that Niels Arden Oplev ratcheted up so expertly in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: While uneven, repetitive and occasionally nonsensical, The Girl Who Played With Fire still offers a fair dose of suspense and action for those who can stomach its brutal violence. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: The Girl Who Played with Fire, may not be as good as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but it's not chopped liver either. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: Feels simultaneously crowded and perfunctory. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: The already fragile bond between the two leads gains an added layer of intrigue here because it plays out at a distance. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The Girl Who Played With Fire narrows instead of broadens, and while the final scenes are bloody indeed, they frustratingly raise questions the film doesn't care to answer for now. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: It's more textured than the first. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Rapace and Nyqvist could not be better. For the films themselves to really fly as cinematic pulp fiction, though, some middle ground between the world's worst venalities and the world's most righteous vigilantes would at least have to be acknowledged. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Alfredson directs with a perceptive eye and a roving camera, using oblique angles for a script that unfolds with programmatic efficiency. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Resembles nothing so much as a workmanlike TV crime thriller. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: Rapace's Lisbeth Salander is worth the trouble; you haven't seen a cold stare like this since Clint was roaming the Italian hillsides. Then he was the man with no name, and now we have the woman with no fear. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Directed by Daniel Alfredson and adapted by Jonas Frykberg, it's more gripping than Tattoo. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The girl is still hot, no getting around it. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: I found The Girl Who Played With Fire more gripping than Dragon Tattoo, because this one doesn't just play with thriller conventions -- it puts them to work. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: As satisfying as The Girl Who Played With Fire is, it leaves you longing for more. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The story is far from finished; the film can't help but feel like a bridge to its end. But the power of that partnership forged in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo remains strong. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: This movie feels as though it's spending more time setting things up for later than delivering on its promises now. But that's okay. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is on track for this fall. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: ...the first picture's ferocity remains intact here, as do its fetishes regarding political corruption, sexual violence and the riveting [Noomi] Rapace... Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: There is some satisfaction to be had in a step-by-step mystery being competently executed -- but such plots are so cheap that they've mostly been demoted from the big screen to episodic television. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: This is no-nonsense, let's-get-to-it business, and will probably be less satisfying, and less clear, to viewers unfamiliar with the source material. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Two-thirds of the way through, The Millennium Trilogy is looking like the North American cinematic event of 2010. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A thriller is incomparably more arresting when it involves plausible people doing plausible things, rather than archetypes co-starring with animation. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Relentless suspense allows The Girl Who Played With Fire to hold you in a viselike grip. But it's the performances of Nyqvist and especially Rapace that keep you coming back for more. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Larsson's genius was to suggest a connection between those cruel but supposedly dead ideologies and a continuing legacy of misogyny, rape and violence against women. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A jumble of nonessential supporting players and story-choking clots of personal history. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Gone is the first film's director, replaced by the prosaic Daniel Alfredson, who starts things off by swarming us with a perplexing array of characters. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The fact is, we don't really come to know much more about Salander than we did at the end of last movie. But perhaps that's the key to holding our attention. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: In Rapace, it has an actress who brings a memorable literary character to indelible movie life, as Vivien Leigh did for Scarlett O'Hara. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Again, it's worth the price of admission alone to spend time in the company of Sweden's premiere bisexual emo-sleuth... Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: While this second installment in the series is mostly taut and suspenseful, it grows repetitive and drags in the final third. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Variety: This subpar Nordic crimer leaves ample room for improvement for the inevitable U.S. remake. Read more

John Patterson, Village Voice: Fans of the novels will eat it up, while newbies may wonder what all the fuss is about. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's just as violent and darkly creepy as the first film, but the richly satisfying payoff isn't there. Read more