Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series of books, set in an extremely Dystopian place called Panem in which participants from various districts in varying states of poverty are forced to fight to the death, are likely second only to J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series in terms of popularity among teens and young adults. The first three books, "The Hunger Games", "Catching Fire", and "Mockingjay", were published in consecutive years, 2008. 2009, and 2010, and were subsequently made into massive box office hit movies, the first in 2012; "Catching Fire" in 2013"; and "Mockingjay" made into two films, Part 1 in 2014, and Part 2 in 2015. Each of those films starred Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 (located in the Appalachian region). In 2020, Collins released a prequel, "The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes", that was set some six and a half decades before the events of the first three novels. And in 2023, that book too got made into a massive opus of a movie.
Although Lawrence's character of Katniss Everdeen is absent here, THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES does get into the meat and bones of how one character, Coriolanus Snow (played in the three films before this one by Donald Sutherland) came to be what he became in the main trilogy. As played by Tom Blyth, Snow is assigned to be a mentor to a District 12 contestant named Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), an itinerant mountain girl and folk music singer, to help her win the tenth edition of the Hunger Games. This sets him up to be closely monitored by the Games' prime mastermind, Dr. Volumnia Gaul (played with rather vicious relish by Viola Davis), and the games' creator Dean Casca Hightbottom (Peter Dinklage). Zegler manages to win the Hunger Games, but many complications between her and Blyth ensue afterwards, as do his relationships with, among others, rival Sejanus Plith (Josh Andres Rivera).
As directed by Francis Lawrence, who helmed CATCHING FIRE and both MOCKINGJAY films, THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES, aside from being Dystopian in ways that I think would have been hard for even Aldous Huxley or George Orwell to imagine, is quite hair-raising in terms of its action sequences, occasionally imperiling the credibility of its PG-13 rating. It is also quite a long movie at almost two hours and forty minutes, though that length is offset by the action sequences, and the breaks into Appalachian folk music that Zegler's character indulges in, and which earns her the support of the Hunger Games viewing audience. Zegler, whose role as Maria in director Steven Spielberg's beautiful 2021 reworking of WEST SIDE STORY is one for the ages, does a very good turn as Lucy Gray Baird, with her folk-singing voice being very much reminiscent of Mother Maybelle Carter, Joan Baez, and Linda Ronstadt; and although this role isn't quite on the level of what she did for Spielberg, it is nowhere near the hot mess that her detractors (of which there seem to be far too many), and she really gets into the role in the District 12 "bar" sequences.
THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES, even with its weird complications, twists, and turns, earns a rating of 8 from me.
Although Lawrence's character of Katniss Everdeen is absent here, THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES does get into the meat and bones of how one character, Coriolanus Snow (played in the three films before this one by Donald Sutherland) came to be what he became in the main trilogy. As played by Tom Blyth, Snow is assigned to be a mentor to a District 12 contestant named Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), an itinerant mountain girl and folk music singer, to help her win the tenth edition of the Hunger Games. This sets him up to be closely monitored by the Games' prime mastermind, Dr. Volumnia Gaul (played with rather vicious relish by Viola Davis), and the games' creator Dean Casca Hightbottom (Peter Dinklage). Zegler manages to win the Hunger Games, but many complications between her and Blyth ensue afterwards, as do his relationships with, among others, rival Sejanus Plith (Josh Andres Rivera).
As directed by Francis Lawrence, who helmed CATCHING FIRE and both MOCKINGJAY films, THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES, aside from being Dystopian in ways that I think would have been hard for even Aldous Huxley or George Orwell to imagine, is quite hair-raising in terms of its action sequences, occasionally imperiling the credibility of its PG-13 rating. It is also quite a long movie at almost two hours and forty minutes, though that length is offset by the action sequences, and the breaks into Appalachian folk music that Zegler's character indulges in, and which earns her the support of the Hunger Games viewing audience. Zegler, whose role as Maria in director Steven Spielberg's beautiful 2021 reworking of WEST SIDE STORY is one for the ages, does a very good turn as Lucy Gray Baird, with her folk-singing voice being very much reminiscent of Mother Maybelle Carter, Joan Baez, and Linda Ronstadt; and although this role isn't quite on the level of what she did for Spielberg, it is nowhere near the hot mess that her detractors (of which there seem to be far too many), and she really gets into the role in the District 12 "bar" sequences.
THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES, even with its weird complications, twists, and turns, earns a rating of 8 from me.