Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is yet another instalment in the Suzanne Collins series that started with Katniss Everdeen more than 20 years ago, and continues apace two decades after Jennifer Lawrence first took on the powers that be. With this latest incarnation Jesse Plemons steps into the shoes of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, while Ralph Fiennes takes time away from bone temples to breathe life into President Snow.
Aside from taking over from Donald Sutherland, Fiennes also brings sartorial menace into the equation in his own unique way, undercutting the theatrics of Kieran Culkin’s Caesar Flickerman, last seen through the eyes Stanley Tucci. Based on this evidence Sunrise on the Reaping is a bombastic and oversaturated entry, that is equal parts tribute focused, but will also lean into the politics simmering beneath the surface.
Director Francis Lawrence, who has been with the franchise since 2013, has clearly become enamoured by this fictional world and embraced the literary potential at his fingertips. From the humble beginnings of that first Hunger Games adaptation through to this latest iteration, it proves that some sequels are built to defy the laws of diminishing returns. Let the games begin this November.