10 Sci-Fi Movie Sequels Better Than The Original

10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games proved to be a solid opener to what would quickly become Hollywood's next big YA franchise in 2012, with Jennifer Lawrence owning the screen at every given opportunity. Thrilling as it was, the film's focus on the actual games themselves left much of the concept and this world in general relatively unexplored - something that set out a unique opportunity for its eventual successor.

Catching Fire didn't just pull it off, it took that opportunity and ran with it. It did that in many ways but the most important one was building on the foundations of the first movie to fully immerse us in the dystopian world of Panem. Through that we understood the themes that the stories were trying to tell much better and that ultimately allowed for more engaging character journeys - setting the stage for Lawrence to deliver an even more captivating performance than her previous one.

It's a bigger movie, but it's also a lot better, enriching the franchise's story to such an extent that even its larger-than-life follow-ups couldn't quite return it to those heights.