Review: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Official synopsis: Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blythe) mentors and develops feelings for the female District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) during the 10th Hunger Games.

When it first came out that Suzanne Collins was writing a prequel to her hit Hunger Games series from President Snow's point of view, I balked at reading it. Why should I care what that guy has to say? Then the first trailer for this came out and it looked good, so I gently applied my clown makeup and got the book from the library.

Much to my surprise, I loved the book. I thought it was fascinating and it didn't try to sympathize Snow like I thought. Sure, you do feel for him at times, but he's always self serving. Much of the book translates well to screen. Blythe perfectly captures Snow well. He is arrogant and power hungry and very caught off guard by the feelings he starts to develop for Lucy Gray. Rachel Zegler, our favorite theater kid feels like she was born to play this role. Like Lucy Gray, she's a born performer. She also makes the songs work a lot better than they read.

I know many are going to call this film disjointed because the games aren't what ends the film, they're in the middle and that's a take I'm going to disagree with having read the book. The after is absolutely necessary for Snow's descent into the horrific President we come to know. I liked that part of the book. Digging into how you are after you leave the arena was part of what made Catching Fire such a good entry. 

Of course there's some things in the book that didn't make it to screen that I wish would have. I understand why they made the games more action focused. That works more cinematically and I knew as I read reading that they were going to change when the snakes are introduced, but I still wish they would've kept the starvation and illness. That what really sets it a part from Katniss' version. (And before you come for the screenwriter, that cringy Katniss reference is actually from the book)

There was one change that I thought worked really well and it's something another Tribute, Coral (Mackenzie Lansing) says to Lucy Gray right before she dies. That added some nuance I wasn't expecting.

Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage ATE up their scenes. I absolutely loved them. I couldn't end this review without saying it. While This does fall into the "book was better" camp, I think it's a step up from what we got with both Mockingjay films and it's a worthy entry to what is hopefully the end of this franchise, because where can they really go from here?

Grade: B