Movies adapted from books should be able to stand apart from their source material. To this end, last year’s “The Hunger Games” did an adequate job of translating the dystopian future of Suzanne Collin’s science-fiction novel, where an upper-class autocracy employs televised blood sport as a means to disenfranchise its poverty-stricken populace.

With a new director in Francis Lawrence (known for low-on-substance visual treats like Constantine and I Am Legend), “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” hopes to build on the solid foundation of the original.

As the dual victors of an annual, gladiator-style contest to the death, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are forced to tour the downtrodden districts of their fallen contemporaries to propagandize for their totalitarian government. The very fact that Katniss and Peeta won the games in a nontraditional way, however, stands as an act of defiance that’s soon to spark a rebellion.

As a reluctant rebel, Katniss’ struggle to protect those whom she loves from the ever-growing dangers facing them is easy to latch onto, thanks to Lawrence’s performance. Lawrence is still the film’s centerpiece and justifiably so, playing Katniss with added nuance and complexity to account for the psychological trauma the heroine suffered because of the games.

Among an impressive cast of newcomers, including Philip Seymour Hoffman as the shadowy game-maker Plutarch Heavensbee and Jeffrey Wright as a brains-over-brawn games veteran Beetee, Catching Fire is additionally bolstered by memorable turns from its returning cast.

Unfortunately, Lawrence ends the film abruptly with an egregious cliffhanger that completely undermines the film’s emotional momentum and leaves too many narrative threads unresolved.

Catching Fire is serviceable book-adaptation fare that seems content to exist solely as a breezy franchise waypoint—and that’s fine. Just don’t be surprised how quickly the cold sets in once the film flames out.

amaenche@mavs.coloradomesa.edu