The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Last weekend, the new Hunger Games prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, was released in theaters. This movie follows a young Coriolis Snow in the early years of The Hunger Games where he is brought on to mentor the tribute from District 12. I have enjoyed the other Hunger Games films and have read all of the books including this one so I was interested to see how this book was going to be adapted.

I thought this movie was a very solid and faithful adaptation of the book. It doesn't omit too much from the story and does a great job of sticking to the overall story order. I really enjoyed how this movie gives us a glimpse into early Panem and the beginning of the Hunger Games. We get to see the Capitol learn how to make the games more engaging and see the games begin to turn into what they are in the main films. The movie also does a great job of showing us what life in the Capital is like. It shows that not everyone is well off and some, like the Snow family, are still struggling to get food. This movie also introduces us to some interesting new characters. Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray was a standout in the film. She has such a fun energy and comes across as such a genuine person in the film. We also get introduced to Viola Davis's Dr. Gaul and Peter Dinklage's Dean Highbottom both of which bring compelling yet cold influences to Snow's story. The actor who plays Snow also does a very good job as he is able to portray both a sympathetic person and a cold monster. I am hoping he gets more work after this. This movie also has a lot more musical numbers than one would think which I think helps add some unique elements to the story. Finally, I think this movie does a great job of showing us the tragedy of Snow. We see his relationship with Lucy Gray grow but know in the back of our minds where he ends up in the main films. With this knowledge, the movie causes this feeling of dread as you see Snow make worse and worse decisions at the expense of those close to him. It is really effective in portraying the fall of his character. The movie also utilizes a darker tone than the other films which further drives this story home.

I do have a few issues with the film which are to blame more on the book than the movie itself. One of the issues I have is one I have with all prequels which is that they portray a false sense of stakes. There are several moments where Snow is in mortal danger that come across as hollow because he obviously survives as he is in the other movies. I am also not sure this movie/book was totally necessary. I was not really curious about Snow's origins nor was this really a story that anyone really asked for. For what it is, it's good but I'm not sure we really needed this story. Finally, this movie felt like it was essentially two stories. Again, this is more of an issue with the book as the movie was just following the source material. The first two acts follow our main Hunger Games story while the third act shifts to something different. It felt almost like Suzzane Collins didn't quite have enough material to make a second book so she just tacked it on to the end of the story we got. This isn't the movie's fault but it is a bit of a structure problem that does impact the movie.

Overall, this was a very well-done adaption of the book that tells a compelling yet tragic story of President Snow. While I do have some issues with the book/the premise itself, for what the movie had to work with, I think it did about as good as it could do.

Score: 7.5/10 Grade: B Recommendation: Check it out if you are a Hunger Games fan