By Gary

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a great precursor to The Hunger Games trilogy.

The story of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem.

He is handsome and charming, and though the Snow family has fallen on hard times, Coriolanus sees a chance for a change in his fortunes when he is chosen to be a mentor for the 10th Hunger Games only to have his elation dashed when he is assigned to mentor a girl tribute named Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) from the impoverished District 12.

This film is set before the original Hunger Games trilogy.

The production value, scene locations, and overall ambiance were simply amazing, capturing the essence and aesthetics of the book properly.

The music, especially The Hanging Tree, that Katniss sang in the original trilogy, was a highlight, linking this prequel to the original trilogy nicely.

Also, the song that Olivia Rodrigo did for this movie Can’t Catch Me Now fits the film’s mood and themes well.

I thought Peter Dinklage and Viola Davis were very good in their supporting roles respectively.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes lacks any subtlety in what the Hunger Games are truly about, allowing it to go further with those core ideas than ever before.

The class divide has never been bigger and the desperation that makes people abandon all morals to ensure their success is such a clear through line in this story, even after the games are over.

It’s nicely divided into 3 chapters with two focusing on the games and one after which means the final third has to speed run Snow’s growing villainy.

The decision to keep it as one film was greatly appreciated however, either a slightly longer run time or splitting in two might have actually helped for once.

My Rating: 8/10