The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
The story of Coriolanus Snow, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem. He is young, very determined and though the Snow family has fallen on hard times, Coriolanus sees a chance for a change in his fortunes when he is chosen to be a mentor for the 10th Hunger Games only to have his elation dashed when he is assigned to mentor a girl tribute named Lucy Gray Baird from the impoverished District 12.
rg9400 reviewedNovember 1, 2024
I was not a fan of the original book, and so I went into this movie with very low expectations. Because of that, I was actually pleasantly surprised by it. I don't think it fixes all of my issues with the book. The ending feels like a separate story and is definitely rushed, and because of that, the characters make decisions that seem a bit odd. Snow is simply not an interesting character to follow, and the prequel nature of it means we know where things will end up. And some of the random origins and worldbuilding feel a bit fanservice-y. Also, Rachel Zegler's Southern accent was distracting and hurt her overall performance. So why am I positive about it with all those negatives? For one thing, the movie allows for the characters to feel more dynamic without having to be stuck in Snow's perspective and without voicing a ton of first-person narration. Their motivations get pushed into the interiority of the actors, which I think works better as it allows for more complexity in what the viewer might feel they are thinking. The movie is pretty entertaining and engrossing. Zegler's accent may not work, but she's a phenomenal singer with plenty of gravitas, which works very well for Lucy Gray's character. And most shocking of all, I really was impressed with how the movie looks. Instead of feeling like a 200m+ budgeted blockbuster that just sort of entails a CGI-fest, this movie is shot on location with plenty of wide angles. I am becoming more and more convinced that these large budgets are extremely unnecessary as movies with half the budget routinely end up looking significantly better than them. Overall, I think it's worth a watch.