Movie Review: The Hunger Games - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Performances are good

Cons: The story is a slow mess

The Bottom Line:

A needless prequel

Confusing character arc

And drawn-out story

Needless and Slow Prequel

I never got into The Hunger Games.  Yes, I watched the movies, but I waited until they were on TV.  I wasn’t that excited to see the prequel, The Ballad of Songs and Snakes, but I figured I would eventually.  I was right not to be excited for it.

Set sixty plus years before the events of the earlier story, this movie takes us to the tenth annual hunger games.  The citizens of the Capital are growing tired of watching the children of the districts fight each other to the death, so, in an effort to spice things up, the teens of the prep school are being assigned students to mentor.  And they are being asked for ideas to draw in the audience again.

Future dictator Coriolanus Snow (here played by Tom Blyth) is one of those teens, and he’s been assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler).  Lucy Gray is a singer, and Coriolanus’s ideas of promoting the tributes to the citizens of the Capital make her the favorite.  But what will happen when the games begin?  And what will the fallout of the games be?

Prequels are tricky to tell since we know where the story has to wind up.  As a result, it makes it hard to root for characters or relationships we know are doomed.  That’s part of the problem here.  Much of the movie wants us to root for certain things and people, but we know it is just a waste of time.

And there is a lot of waste of time here.  At over two and a half hours, the movie takes too long to get to the point.  A good portion to the movie is dedicated to the games, which worked in the original since Katniss was the main character.  Here, Coriolanus is the man character, and he’s observing most of the action.  Yes, he gets involved at times, but it just made the entire thing feel slow.

Then there’s Coriolanus’s arc.  It’s too confusing.  We’re supposed to be watching the movie wondering how he turns into the evil dictator we already know him to be.  Honestly, I’m still wondering that at the end.  I mean, yes, the movie ends with him on the path that makes him the evil President Snow, but his actions along the way are confusing.  One minute, he seems to be acting evil, the next he’s acting good, with nothing to indicate why he is changing sides.  As much as I dislike Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, at least there, Anakin/Darth Vader’s character arc makes sense.  Here, it just feels random.

I’m blaming this solely on the writing.  The actors all do a good job bringing their characters to life.  Rachel Zegler gets to show off her beautiful singing voice as well.  In addition, the cast includes Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage and many others I didn’t recognize.  Likewise, the effects are good.

Clearly this movie, and the book it was based on, are just excuses to extend the franchise.  If you are a diehard fan, you’ll be interested in watching it, but if you are a casual fan like me, you can skip The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.