The late Stieg Larsson’s best-selling Millennium trilogy, which began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, continues with a gritty descent into the sickening world of sex trafficking.

Set a year after the events of the first film, The Girl Who Played with Fire is another lean, muscular thriller that pulls no punches in its depictions of the violence and cruelty meted out to the morally conflicted characters.

Audiences who teetered on the edge of their seats in the opening chapter will be just as enthralled by Daniel Alfredson’s film which holds us in a vice-like grip from the opening nightmare sequence to the heart-stopping finale.

Crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) has not heard from computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) for a year. He has ploughed his energy into Millennium magazine, edited by Erika Berger (Lena Endre), who is also his on-off lover, and together they are working on a story about a sex-trafficking ring with ties to the upper echelons of power.

Days before publication, writer Dag Svensson (Hans-Christian Thulin) and his girlfriend Mia, who brought the story to Millennium, are murdered and the gun is tracked back to corrupt lawyer Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson), Lisbeth’s guardian. When police inspect it, they discover her fingerprints.

Inspector Jan Bublanski (Johan Kylen) issues an alert for the hacker’s arrest. But Mikael refuses to believe that Lisbeth is capable of such an atrocity and he clashes with the cop. Meanwhile, Lisbeth hunts down Alexander Zalachenko (Georgi Staykov), the elusive figure behind the trafficking, and his hulking henchman, Ronald Niedermann (Micke Spreitz).

The Girl Who Played with Fire opens with Lisbeth in a gorgeous villa by the sea, where she has been laying low, then plunges her and the other characters into a waking nightmare. Alfredson’s film is every bit as dark, brooding and unsettling as its predecessor, with scenes of graphic violence. The director doesn’t waste a single frame, concealing the twists in Larsson’s novel until the last minute for maximum impact.

The tightly wound narrative ensures the 129-minute running time passes all too quickly, powered by an electrifying performance from Rapace. Supporting performances are equally compelling.

A blitzkrieg on the senses from the opening frames, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World will appeal to young, techno-savvy audiences who live vicariously through their joypads and remotes.

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Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is the 22-year-old bass guitarist with the band Sex Bob-omb, which also includes guitarist Stephen Stills (Mark Webber), drummer Kim Pine (Alison Pill) and lifelong fan Young Neil (Johnny Simmons). Scott meets the girl from his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and is smitten. During Sex Bob-omb’s first round at the Toronto International Battle of the Bands, Ramona’s ex-boyfriend Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha) challenges Scott to a duel to the death. “If we’re going to date, you might have to defeat my seven evil exes,” Ramona reveals. So the plucky musician must face Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman), the Katayanagi Twins (Keita Saitou, Shota Saito) and record boss Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman).

Wright’s film concludes with a countdown to more potential adventures with Scott and the gang. Which will please many.