As the typical teenage girl born in 2006, I went through the inevitable “Hunger Games” phase in middle school. So when news broke that the prequel of the beloved trilogy, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” was getting its own movie adaptation, 2017 me was quaking in her boots.
But unfortunately, this is not the review I was hoping for, as this movie was a bit of a disappointment. For those who haven’t yet seen it, the prequel follows young Coriolanus Snow as he mentors Lucy Gray Baird from District 12 into surviving the 10th Hunger Games. It’s strictly business, until he falls for her, but then he lowkey goes crazy and kills a bunch of people.
I did appreciate the movie’s slow depiction of Snow’s unraveling and development into a psychopath, which was one thing the length of the movie was good for (otherwise can we please revert cinema to the average movie length of just under two hours instead of this three-hour bullcrap) But other than that, the rest of the movie didn’t make much sense.
Don’t get me wrong, Rachel Zegler has a beautiful voice, and I did like her portrayal of Lucy Gray, but the random burst out into song was not my favorite — the reaping ceremony is not really the time or place to break out into song. But I will say that casting ate with all the other characters. They knew what they were doing with casting Tom Blyth as young Snow. I mean whew, just look at him! But I think it worked perfectly, because it forced the audience to fall in love and form attachments with characters they knew would never get a happy ending.
Aside from the fact that the movie felt like it kept on dragging on, the actions of characters were often inconsistent and seemed to be primarily driven by plot progression. There were a handful of moments that just made no sense, although this isn’t the fault of the movie because it was just following the book, it still felt as though simple rationality was disregarded when it wasn’t convenient, e.g., sending Snow into the arena to fetch a friend, the friend making it into the arena in the first place, Lucy fleeing from Snow for killing even though she killed too, and the list goes on. But aside from questionable events in the actual plot of the book, I was also not impressed by Zegler’s accent. It felt very forced and unnatural, and at some points the accent would come in and out. It was awkward, like watching videos of my younger self talking in a British accent for no real reason. There weren’t many other characters from her district with the same accent, so I don’t even know where she got it from.
I know I may be coming off as a bit harsh on the movie, but I did realize that, after watching the original “Hunger Games” trilogy immediately after seeing this one, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is way better than both parts of “Mockingjay,” so I’ll give it that.
Everything else aside, I did find myself enjoying the movie — to an extent, mainly thanks to Tom Blyth. There were certainly some questionable aspects, but overall, my 2017 self was somewhat satisfied with it (she had lower standards.) I’d give it a 6.5/10.
Image credit: Lionsgate
