Two weeks into the new year and my first official review of 2024. I hope everyone had a chance to catch up on my best from last year. If not, you can read the top ten right here. Yes, I know this is technically a 2023 release, but considering I just saw it this week, it fits in for me right now.
This week’s pick is The Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. This movie is directed by Francis Lawrence (the same guy who did all three of the original Hunger Games sequels) and if you liked them, you will like this one. Some quick background on my history with this. I had read all of the Hunger Games books (thanks to Audible) before I watched any of the movies, but this time I went in blind having not read the book beforehand. However, my family went to see this with someone who not only read the book, but they are massive fan of the whole series. So, my review is mostly just based on the movie with only one section where I will mention the book. Of course, one quick reminder that this will have spoilers ahead, so if you don’t want that, go watch the movie and then come back here to read.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place around 64 years before the events of the first Hunger Games film. In the original movie, the 74th Hunger Games are about to get started whereas the 10th Games are on the horizon. I mention that just so you can put the timeframe into perspective.
Even though the focus of this entire movie is on a young Coriolanus Snow (played by Tom Blyth), I would argue that Lucy Gray Baird (played by Rachel Zegler) is the main driving force behind why Snow does most of the things he does throughout. When the movie starts, we see that Snow is living in The Capital, but he resides in the poorer part of the city where he lives with Tigris (Hunter Schafer) and Gandma’am (Fionnula Flanagan). He is a student at the Academy and is chosen to be Lucy Gray’s mentor when she is reaped to be a contender in the upcoming games. He wants to win a scholarship for doing well, so he intends to help Lucy Gray put on a great show.
As the two begin to work together, they form a strong bond that soon blossoms into more of a romance. To me, this is the best part of the movie when they are trying to get her ready to go into the area. The two characters play off each other very well. They both do a great job here as you can see the desperation in her eyes about not wanting to go and you can see him struggling with her having to go. Based on the ending, I don’t think we will see Rachel Zegler return for any more movies, but if they make another Hunger Games prequel, you can guarantee Tom Blyth will be returning.
Throughout the events that follow, Josh Andres Rivera’s character of Sejanus Plinth is constantly causing issues since he disagrees with the games and at one point even enters the area, where then Snow is sent in to save him and must kill one of the tributes to escape. Eventually, the odds were in her favor as Lucy Gray (with the help of Snow) becomes the victor of the 10th Hunger Games, but as a result, Snow is sent out to be a Peacekeeper as punishment for assisting her.
This is where the movie starts to speed up and I feel like a lot of things were left to our own imagination to figure out or they were just briefly mentioned in passing. Over the last 45 minutes or so, Snow and Lucy Gray get to spend time together in District 12, Plinth gets them into trouble and Snow has to kill two more people, and then the lovebirds try to escape which leads to her fleeing away from him and him going back to the Capital to work with the head game-maker…officially setting him on the path he needs to be on before we see him as President.
Now, the part where I will mention the book one more time. Throughout this viewing, I thought the characters fit into the story nicely. The Hunger Games fan I was with mentioned that she thought the characters were all cast perfectly. So, if you’ve read the book, it sounds like you will be pleased with what you see on the screen. Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Viola Davis… you get the idea. I will also say again that if you are a fan of the first four films, you will be absolutely delighted by what you see here.
Personally, outside of Catching Fire, which was the best of the series, I thought the rest were just ok… and that sentiment echoes through here as well. The characters were fun to watch, and the actors did a pretty good job (on par with the three sequels at least), and I enjoyed seeing Snow as a young man. However, I just wasn’t a fan of the story. I kept thinking the whole time that Lucy Gray was going to die in the area since we all knew there was never a female victor from District 12 and I always thought these were overrated stories anyway.
With that being said, I give this a 6 out of 10. It wasn’t terrible, but as fast as they went, they could have made two films out of it or cut some plot points out to make it easier to follow.
