Movie 31 — The Hunger Games : The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Dir. Francis Lawrence.
Date : 27/12/2023
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I’m back. I’ve looked over my writing, and now it’s time to resume writing movie reviews. If you are unsure what I’m referencing, read this: Thank you for reading.
The movie follows a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as he goes on a journey that changes not only his life but the lives of all of Panem.
I’ve seen the the previous Hunger Games movies, The ones with Katniss Everdeen and personally, this depiction of a dystopian future is the best I have seen compared to films like The Maze Runner and The Minority Report.
The reason is that the Hunger Games movies do not give you any hope and do not have a feel-good vibe. Sometimes, seeing what is being done to the people is soul-crushing. All the characters, no matter how big or small the roles, have deep emotional scars, and the movie does not try to justify the actions done to them or downplay their feelings.
The movies are the best example of how powerful people convince you that performing such actions is right. I love all the 4 Hunger Games movies. When I heard a prequel movie was releasing, I was intrigued and was ready to watch it with an open mind.
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The review :
The overall plot is solid, and as far as I can see, there are no plot holes. The score, the sets, and the design are done very well.
The acting is on point. All the characters like Snow, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis), Tigirs Snow (Hunter Schaffer), Dean Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) and Sejanus Plinth (Josh Rivera) are unique and brilliantly portrayed.
There are small things that make this prequel good. Things like giving us an insight into what life was like during the beginning of the Hunger Games and also about the rise of one of the most brutal fictional dictators, i.e. President Snow. The references to Mockingjay and Katniss are good easter eggs that make the movie fun to watch and appeal to the audience that has seen the previous movies.
One good thing the movie does is that it does not try to make Snow a complex character by making him feel guilty about his actions. For example, when he killed one of the tributes in the arena, the Mayor’s daughter. He does feel a little remorse after Plinth dies, but it goes away as he realises that he has to do what is best for him.
The part of him realising that he has to kill Lucy just goes to show how self-absorbed he is and the lengths he would go to protect himself. You might think he is doing all this out of love, but he wants everything to himself. An example is during the scene with his classmate in Dr. Gaul’s office, where she demoed the snakes. He could’ve stopped and saved her, but he wanted credit but needed to be more confident to say so. The character of Snow slowly becoming a sociopath is excellent writing by Suzanne Collins.
Lucy Gray Baird’s character was fascinating. Despite all the hate towards Rachel Zegler on the internet, she absolutely crushed this role. None of the scenes felt ‘woke’ or wrong. A good thing about her character is that she figured out that Snow would kill her the second she was a liability. She bolted and was never seen again.
Dr Gaul’s character is very interesting as I believe it’s because of her Snow is who he is, having him exposed for cheating and sending him to District 12, Fueling his crazy ideas and making him feel the need to control everything. It’s because of her he is a brutal man, and she wants him to be like that so that she can keep planning the Hunger Games.
Lucky Filckerman (Jason Schwartzman) has a minimal role, but he absolutely kills it.
Dean Highbottom’s character was confusing in the beginning, and I thought he was an asshole till the moment he revealed that Snow’s father and his close friend are the reason the hunger games exist and how he tried everything to stop it was a crazy twist and now makes his character full of guilt. Even the part where he sends Lucy Gray back home with some money and is also trying to show that no one watches the Games so that they will stop making them makes his character interesting and makes you feel bad for what was done to him.
One thing that confused me in the end was why the Plinth family chose to take care of Snow. After some online research, I saw that Sejanus’s mother had a crucial role in the books and even took care of Snow.
I wish the movie would have included some scenes regarding this part. Also, I had difficulty connecting with Sejanus’s character as he had very little screen time even though he was a close friend of Snow; he just came off as annoying towards the end. He is a rich kid, but he does everything from his heart, not his brain, which makes you feel for him a little.
To conclude, The movie is a faithful adaptation of the books and a wonderful entry to the Hunger Games franchise. 9/10
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