Courtesy Lionsgate Films
Eight years after the last movie in the series, director Francis Lawrence returns to adapt writer Suzanne Collins’s 2020 Hunger Games prequel book, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
And while it wouldn’t hurt to read the book, anyone who’s seen the first handful of films can easily understand what’s going on here: A young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth, Billy the Kid)—who later becomes the tyrannical President Snow—is a student some 64 years before the original series. He’s tasked with mentoring Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a young performer from a poor area who has essentially been sentenced to die in the 10th Annual Hunger Games, an event wherein 24 “tributes” fight to the death in an arena. Organizers promise Snow a college scholarship as his prize.
Lucy Gray quickly captures the hearts of the citizenry with her Dolly Parton-esque charm and singing ability. Songs come up a lot in the film, and despite the cheese factor, Zegler’s vocals are excellent and even provide a new, more listenable version of the series’ infamous “Hanging Tree” song (sorry, J-Law). Her earnest portrayal of Lucy Gray is also notable, as is West Side Story alum Josh Andrés Rivera’s fiery characterization of Sejanus Plinth, a city boy who loudly opposes the Hunger Games out of sympathy for the districts. Viola Davis, meanwhile, seems to gleefully embody the villainous Dr. Gaul, who grooms Snow’s belief in the necessity of the Games and helps him transform it into the spectacle familiar to fans of the original books and films.
Still, differing elements abound, from a darker tone and decidedly more murder to this version of Collins’ fictional city of Panem feeling quite unlike that of the original movies. Instead of 12 districts battling it out for food scraps, nearly all are united in their hatred of the Capitol. Rebel groups bomb the arena where the Games occur, and tributes kill their mentors rather than learn from them.
While the current glut of remakes, prequels and sequels can be fatiguing for moviegoers, the Hunger Games’ prequel feels surprisingly essential and not entirely dissimilar to the real world’s rich-versus-poor reality. Director Lawrence hammers home the intent of the Games in its creation well—to prevent the districts from rebelling against the Capitol’s oppressive regime by forcing them to turn on each other. The result of the Games is nowhere near the end of the film, either, but the conclusion is truly chilling.
7
+Strong writing; great performances—especially Davis and Zegler
-Too fast-paced; a little cheesy with the singing
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Directed by Lawrence
With Blyth, Zegler, Davis and Rivera
Violet Crown, Regal, PG-13, 157 min.
