Banishing memories of Mockingjay’s happy(ish) ending, we’re back in full-on dystopian mode in this adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ 2020 Hunger Games prequel, which spotlights a monster in the making: the young Coriolanus Snow. Given that the original films made Jennifer Lawrence a superstar playing Katniss Everdeen, the role of Katniss’s eventual nemesis should be a plum one (not least as Donald Sutherland set such a deliciously nasty precedent as the older Snow). British newcomer Tom Blyth (Benediction) convincingly combines wide-eyed optimism and deadly ambition as a promising student determined to take his fallen family back to the top.

In a film set around the tenth annual Hunger Games from returning franchise director Francis Lawrence, we also meet Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird, the plucky, song-loving District 12-er selected to fight to death with other unfortunate youngsters by the Capitol’s cold-hearted elite. When she’s assigned the 18-year-old Snow as her mentor, the two develop feelings for one another. The contest is presided over by Viola Davis’s head game-maker, Dr Volumnia Gaul; Davis gives a fierce and flamboyant turn that channels Pennywise and the Joker and remains just about on course thanks to the actress’s bountiful charisma. Jason Schwartzman is having a fine time, too, as the host of the games, the weatherman and amateur magician Lucky Flickerman.

With much to unpack, the fifth instalment in the series clocks in at a fairly hefty runtime, hastening through its explanations and characterisations along the way (Peter Dinklage’s embittered dean feels particularly undercooked). If J-Law’s understatement and ability to ground the franchise in an emotional reality is missed, Blyth and a tuneful Zegler are decent if unspectacular substitutes, even if Blyth isn’t given enough licence to explore Snow’s dark side in the fraught finale. The film can feel like a pale imitation of the best of its predecessors, but the stakes remain high, the action is solid and, for many, it will be a welcome re-entry into this world.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes is in cinemas from Friday 17 November.