The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Film Review
Following the success of the original Hunger Games novel and film series, author Suzanne Collins created a prequel set 64 years before the first instalment. While I wasn’t a huge fan of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes book, I’m pleased to report that the movie adaptation is very good.
Do you remember President Coriolanus Snow, who was played by Donald Sutherland in the original series? Well, this prequel follows the young version of ‘Corio’ (Tom Blyth) as he becomes a mentor at the 10th annual Hunger Games. He is assigned the girl tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), and must coach her on how to not only survive the games but win over the public’s hearts too.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes doesn’t quite reach the heights of the first Hunger Games or Catching Fire but it’s not far off. Francis Lawrence, who directed three of the original four films, has crafted a prequel far better than they usually are. It is a thrilling, entertaining and often violent dystopian story that convincingly depicts Snow’s trajectory from being a financially desperate student to a ruthless psychopath. It plants those seeds here and there in the first two chapters but he becomes the Snow we all know and despise in part three.
Blyth does a terrific job charting his character’s descent and hopefully, this movie will make him a star. At first, Snow is simply a penniless student and his heart seems in the right place. He just needs to win the games to get the money to go to university. But his steely determination transforms into something else as he becomes corrupted by power. For the most part, I liked him because his motives were legit and he seemed the most normal among the snooty Capitol students. That was a complicated feeling, knowing the crimes he commits in later films.
I lost interest in the book in the final third as it felt slow and boring and took too long to reach the conclusion. Thankfully, the pace of this section was improved considerably and it worked better visually than on the page. It is still a very long movie at 2 hours 38 minutes but a bunch of things were cut from the book so I don’t see how it could be any shorter. Plus, I’d rather have one longer movie than two meh ones (like Mockingjay).
Zegler, who made her debut in West Side Story, shines as the charming and endearing Lucy Gray, who steals the show from Snow. She sang beautifully live on set, adding authenticity and grit to her performance.
There are so many other supporting actors to highlight but I’m going to stick to three – Jason Schwartzman is hilarious and spot-on as Hunger Games host Lucky Flickerman, presumably an ancestor to Stanley Tucci‘s Caesar Flickerman. His performance could not be more perfect. Viola Davis is terrifying as the sinister Dr. Gaul (the costumes and make-up help a lot) and Hunter Schafer did not disappoint as Tigris, although I imagined her to be more airy-fairy.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes flips the franchise on its head and shows Panem and The Hunger Games from the Capitol’s perspective. I didn’t think it would work this well so consider me pleasantly surprised.
In cinemas from Friday 17th November