Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone.
For the longest time, I’ve gone without covering either a prequel or a reboot*, but my rule for them still applies. If it’s a prequel (as the case is here) or a reboot that has a franchise of its own, then I can cover them without needing to cover any other movies first.
Today, we witness the rise of a President with an aptly cold-hearted name, as I present my review of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
The story is set 64 years before the events of the first film. We see a young Coriolanus Snow become a mentor to a young woman named Lucy Gray Baird, who has been chosen as a Tribute (participant) in the 10th Annual Hunger Games, where she has to literally fight to survive.
What Worked: I thought Tom Blyth did a really good job playing a younger version of the series’ main villain.
In fact, what really surprised me is how Snow was portrayed from a narrative standpoint here. He wasn’t a monster from the beginning like the main series would have you believe. For the majority of the movie, you actually sympathize with him, and so it’s all the more tragic as he slowly begins his descent into madness.
It’s even more evident with how he bonds with Lucy Gray, played by Rachel Zegler of West Side Story fame, who’s great in this. As controversial as she’s become in recent months for reasons I won’t go into here**, at the same time, I cannot deny her onscreen talent. Not only is Lucy Gray charismatic, but she’s also compassionate and (mostly) pure hearted***.
Other than her, the people he’s closest to are his cousin Tigris (who later appeared in the main series as a stylist and ally to Katniss) and their grandmother.
In contrast, the people who are perhaps the most cold-hearted throughout the movie are Dr. Volumnia Gaul (the Head Gamemaker) and Casca Highbottom (the Dean of the Academy that Snow attends), played respectively by Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage.
Going in, I thought Viola Davis would be just a mad scientist type and play it up to where she seemed out of place. Shockingly, she’s not. Other than a moment or two where she goes up a couple notches (but no further than that), she’s cold and calculated, so she does play it straight.
As for Peter Dinklage, he’s mostly at odds with our main protagonist. Those are among the more compelling moments of the movie when there’s not any action going on. He’s particularly great in those scenes.
The one that stood out to me as the best supporting character in the movie was Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman, the TV host for the Games, presumed to be an ancestor of Stanley Tucci’s character from the main series, Caesar Flickerman, who would have the same position much later. Plus, after hearing him give such an unsettling performance as The Spot in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse earlier this year, a character like this was a welcome surprise. He was charismatic, and he was the main source of humor, which really worked for me.
The rest of the cast is really good, even though most of them aren’t in it much (though it was nice to see Burn Gorman from Pacific Rim in this; he plays the leader of the Peacekeepers, who are basically the military).
As for the technical aspects, Francis Lawrence (who has directed every installment since Catching Fire) has great direction again here. In fact, this probably has the best action since Catching Fire.
Outside of this franchise, he has shown a sense of scale with his other films, namely I Am Legend and especially Constantine.
It’s further complemented by Jo Willems’ cinematography, which is also the best since Catching Fire (he’s worked on every installment since as well).
The script, written by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt, is solid.
Where this movie really shines, though, aside from the action, is the score composed by James Newton Howard, who has worked on the whole franchise.
For me, it stood out the most in the action sequences and the third act.
There is music outside of the score, of course. The fact that Lucy Gray was the one who first sang “The Hanging Tree” was a nice touch. As for the one I’m sure everyone is waiting for, I’ll get to that in a moment.
There were a couple other references, and the one that stood out to me was how they ended the movie, which was something I didn’t think would be in it.
What Didn’t Work: I’ll get the biggest point of contention out of the way first. That would be the runtime. This is over 2 and a half hours, close to 2 hours and 45 minutes. I get that there was a lot in this story, but I think there is only one reason why they chose to have it be as long as it was.
It would be so they didn’t have to split it into two movies again. At the same time, I appreciated that they did not do that.
This was paced so well for the first two acts… and then came the third act, which is where my problems mostly come from.
The third act, up until the last couple minutes, feels like a different movie. It made it feel narratively inconsistent. The tone remained intact, but the narrative progression was impacted more anyway.
Other than that, there was one character that’s barely in the movie, and after something happens, they’re never shown again. They’re addressed in a line of dialogue later, and that’s it.
My other issue is going back to the music. Rachel Zegler’s songs were good. However, Olivia Rodrigo’s song “Can’t Catch Me Now” is okay, but forgettable compared to some of the songs made for the other movies. Then again, I don’t really follow modern music, so that’s probably why.
Overall: For a prequel and a villain origin story, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a satisfying one in both regards. While not as good as Catching Fire, I did like it more than the first one and both Parts of Mockingjay (I do still like them, though, despite their problems).
Though my issues with this one didn’t take me out of the movie, they stood out so much to where they held it back from being the best one of the series.
Ultimately, however, I would say that if you really like these movies, you might really like this one.
Next time, we go to a different kind of Tribute.
*For those wondering, I’m not counting The Exorcist: Believer, because legacy sequels don’t count. If the movie in question is a direct sequel to the original installment in the franchise and negates everything in between, I treat it as such.
**It’s mainly because they don’t relate to this movie, but one of her upcoming projects.
***Though I had heard this was quite faithful to the book going in, I hadn’t read it, and I’m just going by the movie here.