The Hunger Games films, ranked worst to best (including the new prequel)

1) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Frankly, it would be wrong for any film other than Catching Fire to be at the top of this list. With a Rotten Tomatoes ranking of 90%, Catching Fire is that rare thing: a sequel which is actually better than the original.

In Catching Fire, we have a Quarter Quell: the 75th Hunger Games, where the Games have a special twist to them to mark their importance. In these Games, the tributes are reaped from already existing victors, which means that Katniss and Peeta return to the arena again.

Because of this, we meet a whole bunch of new characters who remain important throughout Catching Fire and Mockingjay, ex-victors who are just as angry at the Capitol as Katniss and Peeta and who want the whole regime burned to the ground. Finnick and Joanna are fan favorites, but Mags, Beetee and Wiress are also crucial characters. They realize that the entire arena is shaped like a clock, with each section providing a different threat to the victors at specific hours of the day.

Catching Fire is original and jam-packed. The idea behind the arena is incredibly clever, as is the way in which the victors break out of it. But there is also emotional heft to the film, whether in the relationship between Katniss and Peeta or the one between Katniss and her sister. In one heartbreaking scene, she is convinced she can hear her sister being tortured by the Capitol. And visually, this film is stunning too.

Catching Fire is not just the best Hunger Games film, it is one of the best YA films to have come out in the past decade and a half.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes comes out on November 17.

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