“It’s the things we love most that destroy us,” said President Coriolanus Snow to Katniss Everdeen.
A prequel film of the Hunger Games tetralogy, or a set of four, titled “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” was released Nov. 17 and honestly, it was a much better movie than I had anticipated.
I was ready to give the movie a horrible rating; however, the film surprised me with how well the character chemistry, plot and action within the movie turned out to be. I absolutely adore the Hunger Games tetralogy and I was very eager to watch this new edition of the series.
For those who haven’t seen the original tetralogy, the Hunger Games is where 24 tributes – two from each district – enter a locked dome and fight it out until there is one person alive and is named the victor. The Games were made due to revolt by the districts to show them that the Capital will not take any sort of rebellion lightly and the districts need to stay in their place.
The movie took place 64 years before the first Hunger Games movie and follows the young life of future Panem President Coriolanus Snow. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow becomes alarmed when he’s assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird from District 12. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and political savvy, they race against time to ultimately reveal who’s a songbird and who’s a snake.
The entire plot of the movie was shown fluidly as it had Snow realize the real reason why the Games were made and he understood the Games before he ran for president of Panem. It’s an interesting tale of life-changing circumstances that has Snow believing one thing, but ultimately believing another by the end of the movie.
The subtle references to the original tetralogy were incredible with the ‘Hanging Tree’ song, quotes from the movies, and the ending cameo from President Snow in the original tetralogy, Donald Sutherland.
While watching the film, the special effects made the movie much more intriguing for the audience to understand what was happening. The shot of Reaper, portrayed by Dimitri Abold, placing the Capitol’s flag over the fallen tributes looked visually amazing and showed the true brutality of the Games.
Rachel Zegler’s portrayal of the sweet and innocent, yet intelligent Lucy Grey Baird was great. Her on-screen chemistry with Tom Blyth, who played the rich and intelligent yet naïve Coriolanus Snow, was incredible as both developed a romance for one another as the movie progressed.
The movie is based on the book by Suzanne Collins that was published in May of 2020, titled “The Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes,” it follows the book well. The movie adaptation is very faithful to the book and it’s the most similar adaptation since Catching Fire, which is the second book and movie.
With a $100 million budget for the film, the movie shined in its opening weekend box office as it earned $98.5 million globally, so money well spent so far.
It’s a great movie that is rewatchable for all ages as long as you can handle violence, blood and some suggestive language. I would give this movie an eight out of 10-star review.
