TL;DR – A an odd egg of a film, it reaches for the stars, and there are moments when it almost gets there even if everything else is messy.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Review –

Well, I should put all my cards on the table before we start. I have never read the books that these films were based on. But I did watch the Hunger Games quadrilogy back in the day, and they never felt like they came truly together and sort of rode on some particularly well-timed casting. I was not sure how a prequel could work given how we know things end, even more so when I heard that the focus of the books was going to be Snow, one of the least interesting characters from the series, but I am glad to have been only partly wrong.

So to set the scene, it has only been a couple of years since the end of the Dark Days and the Start of the Hunger Games. Coriolanus “Corio” Snow (Tom Blyth) knows this pain well because even though he and his family live in the Capital of Panem, they lost everything in the war and can barely survive. He is looking forward to winning a prize only to discover that people have stopped watching The Hunger Games and that he can only get the money by being the best mentor to one of the tributes in the upcoming 10^th Hunger Games. But he was not ready for his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) from District 12, who sang and almost murdered her way into the cage after being announced.  

Besides The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which is an unwieldy name, it was a film full of surprises. I am again reminded that I need to go watch West Side Story because Rachel Zegler is captivating in every moment she is on screen. The world has yet to be as conformed as we see in the later novels, and it was interesting to see hints of what used to exist before this system came crashing down on a nation. Tom Blyth also has a difficult job of being both charming and with hints of where he will end up. I mean, Donald Sutherland is a hard act to follow. Also, Viola Davis 100% knows what sort of film she is in and makes every moment work to forward that goal.

From a narrative perspective, I liked seeing where the Hunger Games started and why they would lose interest after ten years. There are some interesting insights into human nature that we explore here. This is a film that explores a lot of different topics on class, power, control, and revolution. I am not sure it does a fantastic job on any of them particularly, but it is at least trying to say something. I think the most fascinating part of the film is its third act, where we get into the aftermath that films usually ignore. It is an odd part of the film because it grinds the narrative to a halt, from which it never really recovers. However, it is also probably the most interesting part of the film, and I wish they had explored more of this.

In the end, do we recommend The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes? Well, from at least my somewhat faulty memory, this is the first of these films that did click with me in places. The acting was solid, the action when it was there worked, and they very much slapped out a ballad or two. It almost hit somewhere fantastic, but didn’t quite get there. If you liked The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, we would recommend to you The Woman King.    

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Directed by – Francis Lawrence
Screenplay by – Michael Lesslie & Michael Arndt
Based on – The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Music by – James Newton Howard
Cinematography by – Jo Willems
Edited by – Mark Yoshikawa
Production/Distribution Companies – Color Force, Lionsgate & Roadshow Pictures
Starring – Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Josh Andrés Rivera, Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer, Fionnula Flanagan & Burn Gorman with Dexter Sol Ansell, Rosa Gotzler, Ashley Liao, Max Raphael, Zoe Renee, Aamer Husain, Lilly Cooper, Dakota Shapiro, Isobel Jesper Jones & George Somner and Mackenzie Lansing, Cooper Dillon, Hiroki Berrecloth, Kjell Brutscheidt, Nick Benson, Luna Steeples, Dimitri Abold, Kjell Brutscheidt, Luna Kuse, Sofia Sanchez, Knox Gibson, Irene Böhm, Jerome Lance, Tim Jenkner, Eike N.A. Onyambu, Honor Gillies, Vaughan Reilly, Dakota Shapiro, Vaughan Reilly, Honor Gillies, Eike Onyambu & Konstantin Taffet
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: 12; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 12A; United States: PG-13