THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (12A, 146 mins) **** Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Sam Claflin, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lynn Cohen, Jeffrey Wright, Amanda Plummer, Willow Shields, Lenny Kravitz, Patrick St Esprit. Director: Francis Lawrence

Building on the robust foundations of last year’s opening salvo, Catching Fire is a lean and muscular sequel, which strikes a pleasing balance between brawn and brains.

The final hour of the film might be devoted to the 75th annual Hunger Games, a televised battle royale pitting combatants against one another in a booby-trapped arena. Yet the director and scriptwriters, including Glusburn-raised Simon Beaufoy, aren’t in a hurry to bludgeon us with bloodshed and savagery.

They invest precious time in developing sinewy emotional bonds between characters and light the fuse on civil unrest that will explode in the concluding chapter, Mockingjay, which has been split into two films, a la Harry Potter and Twilight.

Unlike its predecessor, the second instalment didn’t require UK censor cuts to its on-screen violence to secure a 12A certificate. Yet Catching Fire is every bit as unrelentingly grim and brutal, including a wince-inducing scene of flagellation at the hands of a sadistic commander (St Esprit) and a moment of heartbreaking self-sacrifice.

The film opens with resilient heroine Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) back in District 12, hunting alongside her beau, Gale Hawthorne (Hemsworth).

They steal a kiss in secret before Katniss returns to the Victors’ Village to continue her fake romance with Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson) for the cameras. President Snow (Sutherland) is waiting for her.

“I think we’ll make this whole situation a lot simpler by agreeing not to lie to each other,” growls Snow, who threatens Gale’s life if Katniss steps out of line.

Flanked by booze-sodden mentor Haymitch Abernathy (Harrelson) and sartorially daring escort Effie Trinket (Banks), Katniss and Peeta tour the districts, scenting rebellion in the air.

Meanwhile, Snow recruits a new Games creator Plutarch Heavensbee (Hoffman), to stage a special anniversary tournament known as the Quarter Quell, which will pit the darlings of District 12 against former winners in the ultimate duel of death.

In the arena, Katniss and Peeta risk everything once again to keep each other alive, forging alliances with cocksure Finnick Odair (Claflin) and his elderly mentor Mags (Cohen), quixotic duo Beetee (Wright) and Wiress (Plummer) and rabble-rousing loose cannon Johanna Mason (Malone).

Running six minutes longer than the first film, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire whets the appetite nicely for a devastating final stand. The script turns up the heat on the central love triangle to a brisk simmer, while Lawrence and Hutcherson expertly navigate their characters’ conflicting emotions, leavened by comic relief courtesy of Stanley Tucci as flamboyant TV host Caesar Flickerman.

With an extra 50 million dollars in the sequel’s budget, production design doesn’t disappoint, not least costume designer Trish Summerville, who pulls out the stops for Effie’s wacky wardrobe, including a dress festooned with monarch butterflies.

Most of the violence in the arena takes place off screen but as the cliff-hanger ending of the sequel makes clear, before every storm, there is a lull.

Take a deep breath, while you still can.