After scrolling past one too many Tom Blyth thirst traps and experiencing the resurgence of the Josh Hutcherson whistle edit, I was persuaded to watch The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. This Hunger Games prequel focuses on the story of Coriolanus Snow and how he came to be the villain of the saga.
I have to say, the concept of the movie is brilliant. First, everybody loves a villain origin story. Second, 2000s kids (me included) are obsessed with the dystopian era of books and films—see The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, etc. Bringing it back leads to a wide range of nostalgic teenagers and young adults watching for the memories. Third and most importantly, they paradoxically made Snow extra hot. His appearance alone is enough to bring some people out to the theater, whether they’re into The Hunger Games or not.
The movie is divided into three parts. The first two, “The Mentor” and “The Prize” were the ones I really enjoyed. Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth’s performances as Lucy Gray and young Coriolanus Snow were impressive, the songs were great (even though her initial singing was a little unnecessary, she just got picked for the Hunger Games and decided to give an a cappella performance?) and I particularly enjoyed the portrayal of Panem pre-Katniss. The audience gets to witness the nascent Hunger Games in a makeshift arena with flimsy drones and bad organization. This was a striking move that conveyed that the Games weren’t always the highly developed spectacle we have come to envision. Finally, Jason Schwartzman’s performance as game show host Lucky Flickerman makes a fun connection to Stanley Tucci’s Caesar Flickerman later in the series.
I distinctly thought that the movie was about to be over by the end of the second part. So when I saw “Part Three: The Peacekeeper” displayed in bold capital letters on the screen, I was surprised. Boom—another hour. That is where my first issue with the movie arises: it struggles with pacing. The third act, with its sudden change in tone (a new environment, a new storyline) creates a jarring transition that makes it seem like we’ve entered a completely different movie. Perhaps this works better in the book the film is adapted from because of Snow as a narrator, but I had the feeling the screenwriters forgot about the “villain origin story” aspect, maybe too absorbed in the Hunger Games section, and used that third part to hastily bring together the pieces. In my opinion, it was unsuccessful.
The reason for Snow’s final betrayal of Lucy Gray was not powerful enough since the subplot that set up his motivation was a little far-fetched, or at least not really developed. The issue with pacing goes together with another problem: the portrayal of Coriolanus. The movie makes him quite indecisive and insecure at moments, which is incongruous with his portrayal in the book, where he is manipulative and narcissistic throughout. Maybe they were attempting to give him a soft side, but the hot aspect could have been enough. Many argue the movie misses his interior monologue, but this is always something complicated to convey on the screen.
Overall, if the movie’s goal was to make us understand Snow more, the goal was not fully met. If it was just to bring us back to the peak Hunger Games era, have a catchy soundtrack, and create Tom Blyth edits, goals were met 10000%.
