KATNISS Everdeen, the deeply conflicted, highly combative kick-ass heroine of The Hunger Games trilogy comes into her own once again in Catching Fire, the middle segment of the series about a dystopian society and the gladiatorial games that are its brutal, glittering centrepiece.

If nothing else, Catching Fire proves that - given the right ingredients - movies aimed primarily at young adults can also make compelling viewing for a broader demographic (producers hoping to turn a book about, say, teenage vampires or child vigilantes into a big-screen franchise are advised to take a page from this movie).

This latest instalment, based on the best-selling sci-fi adventure series by Suzanne Collins, directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt, is a thoughtful, provocative and well-executed entertainment that generates the same kind of positive energy shown in the first movie (The Hunger Games, 2012).