The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Review: A Bit More Juice Left in this Dystopia

 

Where there’s a franchise, there’s a way, and Lionsgate is continuing to turn “The Hunger Games” into their Harry Potter scale mainstay with an adaptation of Suzzane Collins’ latest book with director Francis Lawrence (“I Am Legend,” “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”) returning too, and it’s a prequel no less. “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is a fascinating film as it seeks to tell the origin story of the main series’ most devilish and hated antagonists: President Coriolanus Snow. 

Set almost 65 years before the events of the first book and film, it follows Snow, played by Tom Blyth (“Benediction,” “Billy the Kid”) as he is selected to train a tribute for the upcoming 10th annual Hunger Games. He and his tribute from District 12 Lucy Gray Baird, played by Rachel Zegler (“West Side Story (2021),” “Shazam! Fury of the Gods”), slowly begin to form a romance as the Hunger Games play out, eventually leading to far greater consequences than either of them had anticipated. 

The rest of the ensemble cast consists of Jason Schwartzman (“Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”) as Lucretius Flickerman, the host of the Hunger Games’ broadcast, Viola Davis (“The Woman King,” “Widows”) as Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the head Gamemaker for the 10th annual games and their original creator, Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones,” “The Station Agent”) as Casca Highbottom, the dean of the academy Snow attends, Hunter Schafer (“euphoria,” “Belle”) as Tigris Snow, fashion designer and sister to Coriolanus, and Josh Andrés Rivera (“West Side Story (2021),” “Cat Person”) as Sejanus Plinth, friend to Coriolanus and fellow mentor to a tribute from District 2. 

As a prequel, there are immediately a lot of individual fascinating elements to the film’s tale that make it far more than just a retread of a character’s life. Screenwriters Michael Lesslie (“Macbeth (2015),” “Assassin’s Creed”) and Michael Arndt (“Little Miss Sunshine,” “Toy Story 3”) and original novelist Suzzane Collins have worked to make this an increasingly interesting take on the evolution of a villain. Their approach to the concept isn’t one of pity or whimsy, but a slow evolution. Blyth performance combines with this exceptionally well, and his slow crawl to his inevitable evil end is exceptionally fascinating to watch. 

Equally fascinating is Zegler’s performance. While the film is centered around Snow, it isn’t from his perspective, but the way Baird is portrayed and played makes it seem as if we’re seeing her through his eyes entirely. She has an enigmatic, ethereal, almost otherworldly quality to her. We see Snow view her almost as a creature from a different land, and this further influences and enhances her arc through the story, creating a truly fascinating romantic tale. 

Each other cast member is also good, but their characters don’t prove to be as multi-layered as Snow or Baird. Davis is clearly having a lot of fun playing the big bad, chewing through the scenery and Dinklage plays the old, regretful, soulful drunk well. Schafer meanwhile, is doing a lot with a lesser role, infusing a humanity and pain to lay the groundwork for a character who eventually becomes something far more mutilated and haunting in the main trilogy. Rivera also does a great job and helps to craft what could have been a far more predictable “best friend” kind of role into something more nuanced and complicated. 

It’s nice to see the extensive sets and costumes return with flair and flourishes, showcasing some fantastic practical effects work as well. While there are more computer-generated effects than before (for context, the budget for the first Hunger Games film was $20 million less than this one), those real locations help to seal the downtrodden feeling this world requires to make its central conceit work. 

There is one major negative against the film that unfortunately hurts the entire end result and that’s its length. It’s not that it's an overly long film, because while it is, it isn’t poorly paced or full of useless scenes that drag on. So it doesn’t have the effect of dragging on or overstaying its welcome. The problem is the film is overstuffed. There’s enough plot here to be two separate films, and it feels like that was the original plan, but the end product is those two films spliced together into one. It is, quite simply, too much movie. Even if it was a flawless work, there’s a difference between one story that’s told over a long period of time and two stories shoved into one film where one gets shortchanged, making it feel way longer than it already is. 

“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is a really good movie, but not a great one. It’s a fantastic drama that gets back into the meaty groundwork of what makes the Hunger Games interesting, with a great pair of lead performances that carry a film that dares to show the origin of its main series’ fascist madman. But it's also an overstuffed, overlong movie, with way too much plot for one tale that leaves it feeling like too much of a good, but not great, thing. 3.5/5