Rent The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (aka The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

The Hunger Games series never really did anything for me, perhaps because I’d seen similar/better narratives of the concept (Battle Royale, The Running Man). I wasn’t in the demographic of young adults who consumed these books and likely have not seen the aforementioned films. That said, I was intrigued to see how The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes attempts to weave a prequel saga out of this book/movie series. After all, Battle Royale-style movies focus on the fallout, not the events leading to a gruesome dystopia. Thankfully, this film becomes an entirely different beast and easily one of the best Hunger Games films I’ve ever seen.

Taking place in the early years of Panem’s Hunger Games, the young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) has risen to a point in his studies where he will be a mentor for a district player in the Games. Her protege is District 12 female tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a woman who quickly becomes someone the public roots for with her singing displays presented at the pre-Games talent show. The conspiring forces want to ensure the games are entertaining and dehumanizing to the districts battling it out for the right to resources. This includes the sinister snake-wielding gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis), the Games creator and hard-drinking Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), and the scene-stealing announcer Lucky (Jason Schwartzman).

As the Games proceed, the hypocrisy becomes apparent quickly. Drones are used to send water for the players during the brutal battle, but since the drones are old and malfunctioning, they end up causing more damage than sending water. Coriolanus becomes disillusioned with the orderly nature of the games while Lucy struggles to keep her few friends in the games alive. While the game itself is intense and perfectly highlights how willing a dystopian society is to accept entertaining displays of death, the more intriguing aspect of this film is what follows the game. The entire fourth act follows Coriolanus and Lucy as they try to move on from the Games in different ways. While they later reconnect, they also grow more distrustful of the corrupt society that has built them both up to be highly suspect people. Even when they seem to be on the same page of staging a revolution against the Games and their inhumanity, there’s a fear of being wronged again that can’t be shaken.

There’s an intensity to the film, even if you know for certain that nothing will happen to Coriolanus as he appears later in the Hunger Games story. The violence is vicious and shocking, especially for the surprises unleashed on the unsuspecting tributes in the form of terrorist bombings and rigged components of the games. The performances are incredibly strong, with Viola Davis being such a highlight that it’s surprising that she isn’t constantly cast as a villain. Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler have great chemistry as they struggle to understand the world from different perspectives, witnessing the atrocities that formed the classes they’ve been born into. There are also lots of nice touches to better build the world of Panem, from the zoo-style holding pens of the players to the echoing hanging tree that lets the cries of the executed ring out for many seconds after death.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is more compelling than any past Hunger Games movies. It’s hard to say if a sequel could sustain this intrigue and action, but it may be worth a shot. After all, the recent Planet of the Apes prequel films were incredible displays of the franchise at its best. At any rate, The Hunger Games has risen from its young-adult tomb to become something greater than it ever was before.