The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Review

Last Updated on November 22, 2023

PLOT: Coriolanus Snow mentors and develops feelings for the female District 12 tribute during the 10th Hunger Games.

REVIEW: The Hunger Games franchise (check out our rankings) took cinemas by storm in the early 2010’s, so it’s not a surprise to see Lionsgate returning to that well. And given the ending of Mockingjay Part 2, it seemed their best route was going 64 years into the past. Going the way of the prequel can be a fine line to walk. I don’t count myself as a fan of the series (though I did enjoy how Catching Fire was handled) but I went into this with an open mind. Unfortunately, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes suffers from the same fate as the rest of the series: poor writing.

Gone is Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen and in her place is Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler). Unfortunately, Lucy isn’t nearly as strong of a character as Katniss and disappears from the film for long stretches. Instead, Tom Blyth’s Coriolanus Snow takes center stage and it’s an intriguing concept. Donald Sutherland’s Snow from the prior films is one of the best characters, so I understand why he is the focus. And with Snow being such a bad guy in those films, they go the route of trying to make him sympathetic here. But given that this is a prequel and we already know where he ends up, it all plays really poorly. In fact, the prequel aspect often hurts The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

This Hunger Games prequel features a ton of great actors and performances. While Blyth and Zegler are good, I had a really hard time buying into the love story between Coriolanus and Lucy. She is far too quick to cozy up to the man who is okay with these games happening in the first place. And we already know from the other films that he doesn’t end up with her, so it turns into a pure waiting game. We know it’s all going to fall apart, it’s just a matter of when. Viola Davis’ Dr. Volumnia Gaul is a bit over the top but makes for a fun character. Hunter Schafer is fantastic as Tigress but doesn’t appear nearly enough. Was hoping for a little meatier role for her, given her talent. And I was shocked at how little Peter Dinklage is around. But thankfully Jason Schwartzman gives a similar energy to Stanley Tucci in the original series and provides some of the only comic relief in the film.

I need to make perfectly clear: I hated all the singing portions in this movie. It all comes across as hokey and melodramatic. The reaping has all of its tension taken away from it because Lucy decides to randomly break out into song. There were audible laughs in my theater when this moment happened and it feels like such a slap in the face to these stakes of the games. And I understand his role in the story but I despised Sejanus Plinth. He’s so holier than thou, yet every time he’s faced with any kind of adversity, he completely crumbles. These elements constantly left me frustrated.

One thing I really appreciated is that this doesn’t even broach the topic of being able to stop The Hunger Games. Instead, it may just end on its own due to lack of public interest. I found this to be very well done since we already know the games go on for another six decades. There’s no reason to invest the audience in something they already know won’t happen. I wouldn’t say the tributes in this one stand out outside of Lucy, but even still, they manage to churn out some truly heartbreaking deaths. I couldn’t tell you many of their pre-games moments, but their deaths left quite the impression. But even still, there’s a laziness present in the writing that gets frustrating. Take tribute Reaper, who is set up as this badass, yet he’s not even around most of the time. And when he is, he’s anything but threatening.

Francis Lawrence has directed all but the initial Hunger Games entry and he returns behind the camera here. This means the visual language is consistent with the others, so it’s easy to see this as coming from that world. And I’d go as far as to say this is the best-looking of the franchise. I’ve never been in love with the series’ reliance on CGI, even when unnecessary, so this was a breath of fresh air. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of CG Animation going on here, it’s just handled much more seamlessly than in the past. Really, the only time it falters is with the very CGI-looking animals.

Ultimately the structure of the film is very odd and it left me very restless. Once the games ended, I couldn’t believe there was still nearly an hour of movie left. There are so many detours and unnecessary elements, that it’s hard not to feel that 2 hour 37 minute runtime. There was no content here that required such an extensive amount of screentime. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes feels like a missed opportunity to continue the Hunger Games legacy. The games feel very poorly thought out and have way too many holes in them. This leads to an unsatisfactory experience and further proof that this franchise should probably try something drastically different if it has any hopes of surviving.

THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES IS IN THEATERS NOVEMBER 17TH, 2023.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Review

BELOW AVERAGE

5