The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins is one of the biggest franchises of all time. The first novel in the series titled, The Hunger Games (released in 2008), quickly became loved by avid readers. So much so, that in 2012 the series signed on to become a blockbuster film. The rest is history as two more books and three more movies were released in the span of a decade. Fast forward to today, and the series has a new installment. Fans were ecstatic when Lionsgate announced the release of Collins’s prequel to her beloved series titled, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. On November 17th, 2023, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hit theaters and fans rushed to get tickets. Three days after its release, the film claimed its spot at #1 at the box office and had already grossed $54 million. While impressive, those numbers did not compare to the whopping $300 million generated globally from Catching Fire. That leaves the question, does this prequel live up to its respected films in the rest of the franchise?
I went to watch The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes on the first day of Thanksgiving break with my best friend. We are both huge fans and I was excited, to say the least. The Hunger Games is one of my favorite series, and I remember being just a little older than 12 and reading the books for the first time. That feeling of reading something and realizing, ‘wow this is something special’ is a feeling I hoped I would get with this prequel. I was also a little nervous. I had heard mixed reviews online, some saying this was the best movie they had seen in a long time. Others disagreed claiming it was a disappointment. With that in mind, my best friend and I bought tickets to a 6:15 pm show on Wednesday, November 22, 2023. Popcorn in hand and a red slushy on the side, we were prepared for anything.
Before I get into the review, here is a little context on The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The story follows Coriolanus Snow at age 18 (portrayed by Tom Blyth). Coriolanus is not yet the evil President Snow we meet in the original Hunger Games movies, but rather a student studying in the Capital hoping to advance to university. With his family’s wealth on a steady decline, his only hope of paying for his future education is to win the prize money given to a select student. At the beginning of the movie, Coriolanus is given one final task before the prize money can be his: mentor a tribute in the 10th Hunger Games. Snow is given a girl named Lucy Gray (portrayed by Rachel Zegler) from District 12. His job is to aid Lucy Gray before and during the games in hopes she may become the victor.
SPOILER WARNING FROM THIS POINT FORWARD
While this film comes in at a staggering three hours long, I could have watched another two hours. This movie was incredibly intense and kept my attention for most of the movie. Around the halfway point, right after the 10th Hunger Games is over and Lucy and Snow go their separate ways, I did feel as though the movie dragged a bit. It wasn’t until the two main characters met again that the movie picked up its pace.
Speaking of the main characters, I loved this casting. Rachel Zegler did an amazing job getting the right amount of quirkiness, confidence, and mystery to shine through in her acting. While some people were annoyed with Lucy Gray’s accent, I thought it was actually very good. District 12 is set around the Appalachian Mountains, so her accent would be correct, as off-putting as it may be. Tom Blyth plays Coriolanus Snow, and wow there is so much complexity within this character. To pull that type of acting off is really impressive. You care for the villain and understand where he is coming from. This is wild because fans have hated President Snow for years throughout the rest of the series. To be able to take such a cruel villain and make him a main character that viewers want to watch takes not only good acting, but good writing as well.
The film itself is gorgeous. The cinematography was clearly a priority and every shot could be paused and admired. The colors of red and blue really stand out here, and give a clear contrast of good and evil. The score is also incredibly beautiful and has so much depth. I love music and when watching movies, that is the thing I am drawn to. The new music mixed in with the previous soundtrack really connects this prequel to the rest of the series. It’s nostalgic, it’s familiar, and it’s unsettling as though history is repeating itself.
I also loved the use of sound throughout this movie. It was revealed that Rachel Zegler sang live during the scenes in which she sings and that to me is extremely impressive. Not only does she sound amazing, but it really grounds the scene. It makes the viewer feel as if they are there with the character. It’s raw, it’s real, and Zegler kills it.
But overall, the story is what makes this movie so good. I haven’t read Collins’s prequel, but there is no question that she is a mastermind when it comes to storytelling. This prequel fits right into the Hunger Games puzzle perfectly and I loved dissecting it. The cameo from Tigris (portrayed by Hunter Schafer) gives just a little more insight into how cruel Snow is. We know that she is banned from the games during Mocking Jay, and seeing her on the screen again is amazing. Her character reveals a more human side to Coriolanus and also shows the shift in who he becomes by the end of the movie when Tigris refers to him as “looking just like his father”. I also loved that this movie played on the mystery of Lucy Gray. Did she actually betray Snow or was that his paranoia? Did he end up killing her? Where did she go? How did ‘The Hanging Tree’, a song written by Lucy Gray that was banned after its first performance, end up being sung by Katniss Everdeen 65 years later?
The parallels between the two girls were also crazy to watch in theaters. When Gray bows after her reaping just like Katniss did in The Hunger Games was so cool. Lucy Gray singing songs that had been hinted at in the previous films was spectacular. And overall, watching Snow fall in love and get his heartbroken causing him to take over the games was all I could ever ask for. It makes not only his relationship with Katniss make more sense, but also so much more meaningful. He sees Lucy Gray in Katniss which explains his obsessions with her in the original films. And finally, the lines that Lucy Gray says throughout the film about Katniss (the plant) and the Mocking Jay birds were cleaver easter eggs.
Overall, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes felt like a film for the fans. It had so many details that you could tell a lot of research and work was put into this film. And I really appreciated that. This movie literally awakened my inner child again and got me hooked once again on another British actor named Tom. And if a film can achieve that, then hey, that’s a win in my book.
9.2/10 stars
