Katniss and Peeta are now struggling to keep up their public facade of being a happy couple and also political pawns for the fascist President Snow (well played by Donald Sutherland) during a time of civil unrest. Revolution is in the air and Katniss is becoming something of a figurehead for the various districts to rise up and fight back against the oppression of the government.

This second, and much darker, film in the franchise is surprisingly political with these themes, with various conversations about creating a sense of fear to control the masses. There is also a nice satirical edge with the political leaders bombarding the public with mindless entertainment and celebrity weddings all hosted by phoney grinning presenters (no one does phoney grinning as well as Stanley Tucci!) and beautiful people parading around in designer clothing to prevent the public questioning the world around them.

The film takes its time nicely developing these political themes, the characters and atmosphere. For people expecting slam-bam action from the start may well find this slower build up to the themes and characters a struggle (it’s almost an hour before they even get into the games for the first action set piece).

The spectacle of the games is handled well by director Francis Lawrence. Shooting on 35mm film in actual locations using minimal CG makes such a difference. The first water-based challenge of these new games is an original setting and makes for a tense sequence. The film is arguably too long though, with a number a scenes/characters in the final third clearly important from the book added that don’t really go anywhere here.

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss expands her character from the first film, with a nice balance between badass warrioress and conflicted romantic, but still retaining a sense of humanity and warmth. However, her two male suitors (played by Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson) still comes across as a bit dull and mopey – Katniss, you could probably do better!

The women in the film tend to fare better, with Elizabeth Banks adding (slightly…) more layers to her superficial fashion designer character. New addition to the series Jena Malone makes also an impression as an outspoken axe-wielding (and occasionally naked) action herione which creates some interesting tension between her and the more straight-laced Katniss.

Arriving at the end of an exhaustingly action-packed year of franchise outings, Catching Fire is a welcome change from the more recent male-dominated CG fests featuring invincible men flying around bouncing off skyscrapers.

Released in UK cinemas on Thursday 21 November 2013.

> Buy the first The Hunger Games movie on DVD on Amazon.

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